TOWER of Leaves
by gamer4
Summary: The Titans return from a vacation to find that the TOWER is suddenly 1/4 of an inch bigger on the inside than the outside. And soon, that's the least of their problems... Heavy inspiration from HOUSE of Leaves. Complete!
1. The TOWER

Gamerr4 in. And, it's time for me to begin a new fanfiction. I'm taking a slight break from my main series, Mario Mario, to come and work on: my first Teen Titans fanfiction! (Cue the painfully fake applause, please!) Thank you, thank you! Anyways, lately, I've been reading a certain book. This book is entitled, _**House**_ of Leaves, and it is by Mark Z. Danielewski (I really hope I spelled that right.) It is a truly wonderful book, and one that I have chosen as the model for my newest story. This is due to the fact that, like most stories I choose as models, it is criminally underrated/underknown. I could give you a full review, but I don't have the time, and a great deal of this story will be mirroring it anyways. For now, let's just say that there's no way I can do this book justice in a form like this. Heck, I'll only be able to include half the story! (For those that have read the book, I'll be focusing on _The Navidson Record. _Johnny Truant, Zampano, etc. won't be appearing.) Now, more than ever, I say, if you like this story, go and pick up a copy of the source material, and commence reading. You won't be sorry. Now that I'm done fanboying, let's begin!

Disclaimer: I own neither Teen Titans or _**House**_ of Leaves.

_**Tower**_ of Leaves

Chapter I

The _**Tower**_

Debate still rages about the _**Tower**_ that stands over Jump City. More specifically, it stands on an island off the city's coast, taller than any of the buildings in the city proper, and shaped like a gigantic T. It was only a couple years ago that this _**tower**_ was barred off from the general public, and left abandoned on its little island, all its previous inhabitants perfectly happy to let it be. Every now and again, people will still go to look at it, to break in on a dare, or even to try and set the building ablaze. However, it still remains, despite all attempts to remove it or renovate it. One of the previous residents, a young woman with grey skin and purple hair, has since commented on the _**tower**_ as such "There's a reason we left that place. It's not for you. If you ever see it out of the corner of your eye, just move along. There's nothing there, not anymore."

The debate has been mainly in regards to a film put together by the former residents to explain their interest in never returning. The film primarily consists of several tapes put together to form what seems to be one long narrative. Several people have declared it an entertaining enough film, and would be happy to leave it at that, if it weren't for the residents' insistence that it all actually happened.

The former residents of that _**tower**_ are a group of super heroes that call themselves the Teen Titans. There is Robin, the leader, dressed in vibrant red and yellow, and a martial artist to the core. There is Cyborg, a- well, a cyborg. Half of his body is metal, the other half a young African-American man. There is Starfire, an orange woman with long, dark red hair, who hails from the distant planet of Tamaran. There is Beastboy, a young man with green skin and greener hair, with the ability to change into animals, and, finally, the young woman with grey skin and purple hair previously alluded to, a young half-demon named Raven.

For the most part, they have taken the skepticism their film was met with in stride. "It doesn't really matter whether you believe it or not," Raven said, alongside her earlier quote. "All that matters is that you take its warning."

And what a warning it is.

XXXX

To explain the film, we'll have to step back in time a little, to a brightly lit day, back when the Titans still lived in that _**tower**_ overlooking the city.

It seemed normal enough, at the time. Two years ago, the Titans had returned from a great battle against a group of villains calling themselves the Brotherhood of Evil. It had been a long battle, but they'd finally returned home triumphant. For a while, the city they protected had seemed small compared to the grand scale they'd seen in that conflict, but lately, things had returned pretty much to normal. As evidenced by that morning. It was the typical Titan routine. Beastboy, a vegan, was having an argument with Cyborg, most definitely _not _a vegan, over who would cook breakfast. Raven, who generally stuck to a cup of herbal tea and the occasional apple for her breakfast, was leaning back with a book, attempting to ignore the war going on next to her. Robin, the team leader, was flicking through the channels on the t.v. while Starfire desperately tried to act as a peacemaker in the eternal meat-vegetarian conflict.

Robin sighed as he flicked through the channels, finding nothing to capture his interest. Same old, same old. He was glad things were peaceful, mind you, but there was simply nothing _happening _anymore. Recently, Beastboy had been complaining about it as well, wondering when they would be going on a vacation. While Robin had shot this question down repeatedly, stating that superheroes didn't _get _vacation time, and while he'd never admit it, he'd been thinking more and more about a vacation as well. The criminals they'd been seeing lately were increasingly petty, nothing that the police force couldn't handle well enough on their own, and it was roughly a year since the incident that basically assured that their greatest nemesis, Slade, would never be a problem again... though, strange as it may sound, Robin preferred not to think about that.

He sighed. So much had changed in so little time. Slade was gone, and not coming back, most of the villains they'd fought before had been captured during the conflict with the Brotherhood, and the villains that remained were pathetic enough for him to... dare he think it- almost _want _a better villain to arise, if only to have something to do, some sort of goal...

"Are you troubled, friend Robin?" came a sudden voice from behind him. He did a double take and found Starfire floating behind him, a warm smile on her face.

"Hey, Star," he said. "No, of course not. Things have just been... a little dull, lately..."

"You are bored?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"I guess you could say that..."

"Would you like to venture with me to the mall of shopping?" Starfire asked eagerly. Secretly, she'd been looking for an excuse to get close to Robin- there was a question she needed to ask him.

Robin, however, paled. "Um, no, Star, that's fine!" he said quickly. Whenever he and Starfire went to the mall together, it depleted their funds very quickly. He was very bad about being able to say no to the alien girl.

Starfire looked uncertain for a moment, then she said, "Robin, there is something I must inquire of you."

"Of course, anything!" Robin agreed, eager to get off the subject of the mall.

"Robin, I was wondering-"

"Hey, Robin, I need to talk real quick," came a sudden interrupting voice. They both spun to see Cyborg standing there.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Robin asked, a slight grumble in his voice. He didn't appreciate the interruption.

"Bumblebee just called- you know, from the Titans East. She's got some sort of problem going on over there, she needs some help. I might be staying a while."

"And what if you're needed over here?"

"For what? What sort of trouble are you expecting? Dr. Light? At the worst? Let's face it, all the big villains are out of commission for a while, we really don't need to worry."

Robin sighed. Having been thinking this himself, he couldn't find it in him to argue. "Alright," he muttered. "Head on over."

"Thanks," Cyborg nodded, turning and finishing off his breakfast in a few short bites. Without further adieu, he headed out the door.

"Now, what were you saying, Star?" Robin asked, turning back to Starfire.

"Oh, yes, I was wondering-" Starfire began again, but she was cut off once more- this time by Beastboy.

"Dude!" he objected. "That's no fair! How come Cyborg gets to go on a vacation, and we don't?!"

"Hardly a vacation," Raven pointed out, not even looking up from her book. "He's just going to help out the Titans East."

"He'll still be somewhere else, though," Beastboy grumbled. "There's nothing _happening _here!"

Robin sighed again. There it was once more: everyone seemed to be so tired of simply sitting there, doing nothing.

"Things _have _been very quiet lately," Starfire mused, looking up with a hand to her chin. "Perhaps we could leave the _**tower**_ for a brief amount of time?"

Beastboy looked eagerly from Robin to Starfire. He knew that, with Starfire on his side, the battle was as good as won. Robin could _never _say no to Starfire. And right he was.

Robin tried to summon a protest, but found himself deflating. "Alright," he finally said. "We can get out of here for a little bit. Raven? Are you in?"

"Pass," Raven said, turning a page.

"Oh, come on, Rae!" Beastboy objected once more, turning to her. "Even you must need a breather every now and then!"

"I don't," Raven said quietly.

Not interested in hearing their debate with each other, Robin got up and started heading through the halls, Starfire following behind. "Friend Robin," she said, "this is not the way to your room. What are you doing?"

"Checking the security cameras," he explained, examining one nearby closely. "If we're going to be out of the _**tower**_ for a while, I want to make sure that any intruders get caught right away."

"How do these cameras work?" Starfire asked, looking at one eagerly.

"You see, it has a motion detector it connects to," Robin said, waving his hand in front of said device. "If someone walks into a room with one of these in it, it turns on automatically, and starts recording. When they leave, the camera turns itself off again. You save a lot of time that way."

Robin didn't consider it that interesting, but Starfire, as she was wont to be, was enamored with the earth technology, and followed him around on his full examination.

Finally, they returned to the living room, just in time to hear the final words of Beastboy and Raven's debate. "Look," Raven was saying, agitation clear in her voice, "I'll make you a deal: I'll go if you agree to _leave me alone _when we get back!"

"Deal!" Beastboy said eagerly.

"So everyone's in?" Robin asked. "Great. I just finished calibrating the security cameras, so we should be good to go as soon as we pack."

XXXX

A few hours later, the whole group had piled into one of the cars in their garage, and they were off on their first vacation in a very long time. Not one of them realized that the _**tower**_, once they returned, would never be the same place again.

_XXXX_

Yeah, italicized Xs mark the end of a chapter. Sorry this one was short, and there wasn't really much happening. I was just trying to set up the characters and setting. Things will actually start picking up in the next chapter, when they get back from their vacation. (The vacation itself is actually kind of irrelevant to the plot.) Hopefully, things will get better then. Until next time, please R&amp;R, any questions or constructive criticism is welcome, flames are also welcome, though not as much, not as much _welcome, _Gamer4 out.


	2. One Quarter Inch

Gamer4 in. I want to correct a fallacy from the previous chapter: all that fanboying about **_House_** of Leaves, and hardly a word given to Teen Titans? I should be ashamed of myself. The thing is, Teen Titans is clearly the better-known fandom, with over a thousand stories on this site, (I don't care to actually go check right now,) while **_House_** of Leaves has less than ten. Regular stories and crossovers combined. But still, credit should be given where credit is due: Teen Titans was a big part of my childhood, and while it hasn't been all that major recently, it still holds a special place in my heart, and it is an utter fallacy that it took me until the second chapter to pay my respects to it. Anyways, with that fallacy-correcting out of the way, let's get to the second chapter!

Disclaimer: I can't stress this enough: **_House_** of Leaves is not mine. Daneilewski spent ten years writing that, I don't expect this story to last longer than the end of this year. Then again, with my update schedule, who knows? Oh, and I don't own Teen Titans either.

Chapter II

1/4 Inch

It is a shame to some people that, on the film, very little is said or shown in regards to the vacation that the Titans ultimately decided to take. Others, fascinated by the things to come later in the film, are glad at the lack of distraction. Either way, it is the case that there is very little time, on the film, between the scene wherein the Titans leave the **_tower_** and the scene where they return.

The Titans were glad to see the **_tower_** rising up over the horizon- Raven in particular. She'd only gone to satisfy Beastboy, and honestly still felt as though her time would have been better spent reading at the **_tower_**. As such, when they finally arrived back on the island, she wasted little time in pulling her hood over her head and descending into a summoned portal to return to her room as soon as she could.

Robin and Starfire were a little slower, stopping and slowly getting out. Beastboy jumped out looking like a kid high on sugar, and eagerly ran up to the **_tower_**, feeling fully refreshed and ready to return.

Robin, however, had seen Starfire wearing a particularly troubled look on the drive back. He hadn't forgotten the question she'd wanted to ask him before, and was determined to hear it. "Is something wrong, Star?" he asked, standing off to the side. "You've been looking a little... worried since we headed out."

"It is nothing," Starfire said, a little to quickly to be really believable.

"Star, I know that's not true," Robin said gently. "You've been wanting to ask me something for a while, go ahead and ask, right now, before we go in."

Starfire looked uncertain for a second, but finally she bowed her head. "Very well. Robin... who is Emma?"

Whatever Robin had been expecting, it clearly wasn't this. He turned white, and his hands clenched into fists. It scared Starfire, to be honest. Not the fists, he didn't look angry- it was how scared he seemed by her question. When he spoke, he was very obviously struggling to stay calm.

"Emma? I don't know anyone named Emma. What makes you ask that?"

"Robin, please do not lie to me," Starfire said, looking at him sadly. "You mention her name whenever you're asleep. You toss and you turn, and you call out her name: 'Emma.' Who is she? Is she someone... special to you?"

Robin stood there, paralyzed for a brief moment, until a sudden cry came out from the **_tower_**. Never had he been so glad to hear such a cry, because it distracted Starfire, too.

The cry started out shocked, then slowly transferred to anger. In Raven's voice, it went something like this: "BeeeeaaaaaassssssttttttBBBBBOOOOOOYYYYYY!" To say that she sounded incensed would have been a gross understatement.

"That sounds like it's going to be trouble," Robin said. Starfire gave a quick nod of agreement, and the two of them rushed into the **_tower_**, heading up the stairs, where they found Raven yelling at a cowering Beastboy, in danger of going into full demon-mode, as she tended to do when she got extremely angry.

"I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN SOMETHING WAS UP, YOU LITTLE GRASS STAIN!" Raven yelled at the green changeling. Robin grimaced- she was using Cyborg's insults, always a bad sign.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Beastboy cried out, his hands raised in unconditional surrender. "I wasn't trying any pranks, I just wanted you to have some fun for a-"

"OF COURSE!" Raven shouted at the top of her lungs, not calming at all. "OF COURSE! AND WHILE I'M OUT 'HAVING FUN FOR A CHANGE,' CYBORG PRETENDS TO LEAVE SO HE CAN COME BACK IN HERE AND BUILD AN ADJOINING CLOSET BETWEEN OUR ROOMS!"

"Honestly!" Beastboy pleaded, his hands put together over his head like he was praying. "I didn't have any- wait, what?" What Raven had said just clicked in his head. He looked up. "Adjoining closet? What are you talking about?"

Raven looked ready to kill him, but suddenly, she seemed to calm down. "Wait... you really didn't know?"

"I swear!" Beastboy said quickly, raising his left hand with his right over his heart. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Maybe we should go take a closer look at this... closet," Robin suggested.

Raven spun around, apparently just alerted to their presence. Looking slightly embarrassed as her outburst, she pulled her hood up and said, "Yeah, sure. But we go in through Beastboy's side. Nobody goes in my room."

XXXX

Tapes from the security cameras perfectly capture Robin, Starfire, and Beastboy's reaction to the newfound door built into the wall of Beastboy's room. Robin seemed almost amused, Starfire confused, and Beastboy simply bewildered. "There wasn't a door here before," he said quietly, staring at the apparition.

"Open it," Raven muttered, standing at the back of the party with her arms crossed in frustration.

Slowly, Robin reached out and turned the knob of the door. It wasn't locked- it opened very easily. Sitting behind the door was exactly what Raven had described: a small walk-in closet, entirely empty. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of some material none of them could identify, except that it was black with the occasional streak of grey. It seemed to be entirely empty. A few feet down, another door led out of the closet, and though they didn't open it then and there, Robin was willing to bet that it led out into Raven's room.

"This is... not normal, yes?" Starfire asked uncertainly, looking around the dark closet.

"Closets randomly appearing while people are on vacation? No," Raven muttered. "I thought it might have been Beastboy and Cyborg, but now that I think about it..." she shook her head. "I don't get it."

"Perhaps we can check the cameras of security?" Starfire suggested, a finger in the air, remembering the wondrous devices Robin had shown her before they left.

"Yeah..." Robin said slowly, running one hand along the wall. "Of course..."

XXXX

As it turned out, the tapes from the security cameras weren't all that helpful. They watched the tapes from both Raven's room and Beastboy's. Raven's showed her packing for the vacation. She turned and left the room, and a second later, she reentered. The door to the closet was gone in the first shot, and present the next. Beastboy's was much the same: it cut from a shot of Beastboy bouncing out of the room with his suitcase full and ready for some R&amp;R to the four Titans entering and marveling at the newfound closet. Gone one frame, present the next.

"So... someone broke into the **_tower_**, built a closet between our rooms, and... did it without triggering the security cameras?" Beastboy wondered, staring.

"Or maybe they altered the tape to confuse us?" Starfire suggested.

Robin agreed vaguely with Starfire, not because he actually thought it was likely, but because he didn't want to admit that he was as confused as she was. Try as he might, he couldn't think of a single person who would want to break into their **_tower_** just to build a closet between two of the members' rooms, and then delete the evidence that they'd done it. All of the villains capable of such a feat were either dead or in jail, and even if there had been a breakout they somehow hadn't heard about, why break in just to build a closet? It made no sense...

Though Raven seemed just as confused, she made a valiant effort at handling the sensation with her usual logic. "Well, it's late right now, there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's just sleep on it tonight. We can worry about the whys and hows tomorrow."

Because no one else seemed to be able to think of anything else to do, they all simply headed to their rooms and lay down on their beds, Beastboy having received a dire warning from Raven that told him, in no uncertain terms, what would happen if he abused this newest addition to the **_tower_**.

And though none of them would admit it, none of them got much sleep that night...

XXXX

The next day found all of the titans sitting in the living room, going about their usual business in a very forced manner, all clearly doing what they could to not bring up the elephant in the room- though, in fact, it was neither an elephant nor in the room at the time. Robin was staring out of the window. Beastboy was playing video games, but was very clearly distracted, as he was playing even worse than usual. Raven was reading a book, though that can only be said in the loosest sense of the word- her eyes were raking across the pages, but a careful observer would note that she hadn't turned the page in quite some time. Cyborg's stay at the Titans East had been abruptly extended- he hadn't even heard about the event yet. Starfire was bustling around the kitchen, preparing a meal. That was how distracted everyone else was- they weren't even making any objections to Starfire's efforts.

Well, eventually they did. "Hey, Star, what are you doing?" Beastboy asked apprehensively, his head snapping up at the smell of... whatever she was making.

"I am preparing a traditional Tamaranian-" While there was more to her statement than this, it was all Beastboy and Raven needed to hear. The two immediately rose and, making vague statements to the effect of 'Gotta go!' they were out.

Robin, however, was so lost in thought that he remained ignorant until Starfire approached him with a plate of who-knows-what in her hands. "Will you partake, Robin?"

Robin jumped, realizing too late the peril he was in. He quickly began raking through his mind for an excuse. "Umm- no, I can't, Star, because I have to- ummm..."

"Yes?" Starfire asked, looking slightly disappointed at the rejection.

Robin gulped. _Come on, think of an excuse, think of an excuse!_ Perhaps inevitably, his thoughts fell on the closet. "I need to measure the length of the **_tower_** through the closet, then..." that didn't seem sufficient, "... compare it to the **_tower_** on the outside. Sorry, I really need to do it, it might help us figure out what's going on here."

Starfire still looked disappointed, but said, "Very well, I understand," though she didn't, and with that, she turned and headed back to the kitchen.

Robin felt somewhat like he'd dodged one bullet only to be hit by another one: to keep his story consistent, he'd have to actually go and do it. Sighing, he headed towards his room for a measuring tape, then commenced his measuring, praying to whatever-god-may-or-may-not-exist that Raven didn't find out he'd been through her room.

He wasn't really paying attention as he ran the tape through Raven and Beastboy's rooms, along with the closet. Deciding he might as well do it properly, just to prove to Starfire that it was a legitimate excuse, though he knew it wasn't, he measured the rest of the rooms in the row. Having a strong sense of OCD, he measured the walls and factored them in as well, and finally came up with a rough 104 feet. Sighing, he headed to the roof to measure across there as well. At least it would be easier up there, just a straight shot across-

A few minutes later found Robin staring, dumbfounded, at the measurements he'd obtained. The measurement for the inside of the **_tower_** through the closet was 104 feet, and when he'd come up to measure the outside-

103 feet, 11.75 inches.

He glanced at all his measurements for the inside. This shouldn't be... but it all still added up, as far as he could tell. If his measurements had been correct, the inside of the **_tower_** was somehow larger than the outside, by a single quarter inch.

Now, Robin had seen weird things before, don't get him wrong. There wasn't much he was skeptical about anymore. He lived with an alien princess, a half-demon, a cyborg, and a green shape-shifter. For a brief amount of time, they'd also had a young woman capable of moving the very earth. But through all this, there were certain things he'd been able to rely on, one of those things being that the inside of buildings are always equal to, or smaller than, the outside. Never greater. It was just how things worked, and it couldn't be any other way. But if his numbers here were correct, he was seeing a violation of that law, sitting in his home.

Anybody else, they'd have just shrugged this off as a mistake of measurement or math, but Robin, as mentioned, was OCD, and couldn't leave it at that. He had to know, he had to be sure. So, despite not having wanted to do it in the first place, he pulled out the tape measure again, and took all the measurements again. And it was to his very great frustration when the results didn't change.

Outside: 103 ft, 11 3/4 inches.

Inside: 104 ft exactly.

At this point, Robin was growing very frustrated. He knew it was impossible, even more so than anything else he'd seen, and yet he was seeing undeniable proof of it. Finally, he headed down to the garage, grabbed a drill, and, heedless to what the rest of the Titans might say when they found out, he drilled a series of holes through the walls across the **_tower_**. He ran a string through the hole, and cut it to the exact size of the inside. He headed up to the roof, then ran the string across, laying it as straight as he could.

The string was too long.

By exactly a quarter of an inch.

XXXX

He was on the point of measuring it for a seventh time, determined to eliminate that fraction of an inch of space, when Raven and Beastboy finally returned. He was immensely thankful that he was found on the roof, rather than in Raven's room. He was already fearing her response when she found the hole in her wall, let alone finding him actually present in her private quarters.

"Starfire said you'd be up here," Raven said, stepping out. "Something about measuring the **_tower_**?"

"It makes no sense!" Robin responded, turning to Raven with his papers. "No matter how I measure it, no matter how I add it all up, it always shows the inside of the **_tower_** to be just a little larger than the outside. And that's not possible... is it?" he added as a hopeful afterthought. Maybe this was something of Raven's, maybe something from Azarath could explain-

"Not as far as I know," Raven said, frowning at the papers Robin had given her. "Even with all the magic I've seen, I haven't seen anything to make a building bigger on the inside. But that's not what I want to ask you about. We're a little concerned about you. Not long-term, but... it's kind of late. Want to put this on the shelf for a bit?"

For the first time in a while, Robin actually looked up and observed his surroundings. Just as Raven had said, night had fallen, and stars were blanketing the sky. "Yeah, sure," he said, tucking the paper into his pocket and heading towards the stairs. "It can wait..."

"Oh, and one more thing," Raven said, and Robin was slightly alarmed to hear a note of anger in her voice. "Want to explain the hole in my wall?"

XXXX

To cut a long story short, Robin awoke the next morning, not very well rested, and sporting a small bruise. Raven had gone much easier on him than she typically did on Beastboy, but she still made her feelings about the invasion of her privacy clear. Sighing, he headed out into the living room. All that measuring, and he still had no idea what was going on. Unable to shake fatigue, he decided to have a cup of coffee that morning.

As the other Titans filed in, he filled his cup with coffee. Then, on a whim, he poured in some more, then some more, and just a little more...

He looked down at the cup, now full to the breaking point. There was a little arc of liquid above the brim of the cup, held there by surface tension. Was their **_tower_** really like this cup? Capable of holding more than it should, if only by a little?

The comparison died as the tension broke, and the coffee spilt over onto the table. Robin obliviously reached for a washcloth and mopped up the spillage, hardly paying attention to what the other three were doing.

Finally, as he drained the mug of its contents, he came to a decision. It wasn't one that he arrived at easily, as he'd been trying not to do this for several years, but it looked like the situation called for it, so...

Beastboy looked up as Robin abruptly stood and headed across the room, reaching for a phone.

"Something up?" the changeling asked.

"I have a call to make," Robin muttered, heading out into the hallway. This would be awkward enough without the others listening in. He dialed the number, and put the phone up to his ear.

*Brrriiiiiinnnnnggggg...*

*Brrriiiiiinnnnnggggg...*

"Hello? Tim Drake speaking."

"Hey, how's it going, Tim? This is Dick. Yeah, your brother. Listen, just... shut up, and listen to what I have to say..."

XXXX

Hopefully, more things were actually happening in this chapter. We're getting more into the main story now. And before you ask, yes, Tim Drake is Dick Grayson's brother in this story. Yeah, I know it's not like that at all in the actual universe, but it fits the story I'm trying to write, so... that's how it works for my story. To be honest, I don't know much about Tim Drake- or much about the comics at all, actually, I only know it through a bit of research that I did because of the show. Take anything as you will, this is just how things are for the story, I apologize in advance for any major deviations from canon.

Anyways, thanks to those of you who are already reading the story. Every bit of support helps, though the best support you can give is to tell me your thoughts. Every bit of constructive criticism helps me make the story better, and since I believe you all deserve the best story, please R&amp;R, constructive criticism or questions welcome, flames will be relegated to my woodstove because the weather is very sporadic around here and is shifting randomly from boiling hot to freezing cold, Gamer4 out.


	3. Tim

Gamer4 in. Not much to say this time around. Let's just jump right in.

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own either _**House**_ of Leaves or Teen Titans. You knew this already...

Chapter III

Tim

What follows next, on the film, is Robin telling a camera a bit about his background with the brother he's calling in for help. We learn that Tim is Robin's twin brother, but that, at the point when Robin called him to help examine the _**tower**_, they hadn't seen each other for several years. According to Robin, they'd become estranged from one another after the incident he'd met Batman (which he gives extremely few details about,) and had seen less and less of each other over the years. Since he'd joined up with the Titans, he hadn't seen or spoken to Tim at all.

Apparently, while Robin had gone on to become a superhero, Tim had lingered behind in Gotham city, eventually getting a job as a construction worker. This job was what made him come to mind when Robin wanted to get a more accurate measurement of the _**tower**_.

We first see Tim entering the living room, looking impressed at his brother's home. He looks almost exactly like his brother, with the exception of wearing different clothes. Even his hair is styled in the same way. "Nice place you have here," he said over his back as Robin stepped into the room.

"It's a roof over our heads," said a new voice as Beastboy stepped in.

"Hey, you're... um... Beastboy, right?" Tim said, pointing at him. "Robin told me a bit about the team when he called me up. You're the funny guy, right?"

"You know it!" Beastboy cried, his eyes lighting up.

"Awesome. I want to tell you about something I saw on the way here- this woman got onto a bus with her baby, and the driver told her that he was ugly. The woman stormed to the back of the bus, sat down a couple seats behind me. The man next to her asked her what was wrong, she told him 'The driver insulted me!' so the man said, 'Well, I'll go up there and teach him a lesson- and while I'm at it, I'll grab a banana for your monkey!'"

Robin and Beastboy's reactions to this were entirely different: Robin gave a groan and put his face in his hand, while Beastboy gave a whoop of laughter. "Good one!" he chortled. Suddenly looking serious, he said, "But now it's time for the ultimate test."

As he spoke his next words, Raven and Starfire sidled into the room behind them. Heedless, Beastboy continued. "The other day, I met a man with a wooden leg named Smith."

"Well, that's just fine," Tim grinned, "but what was the name of his other leg?"

Beastboy gave another whoop. "Where have you been all my life?"

"... Doing construction in Gotham?"

While these two were talking, Raven slapped a mental palm across her face. _Great Azar, now there are _two _of them..._

Looking up, Tim broke briefly away from Beastboy to say, "And you two must be Starfire and Raven!" As he spoke, he pointed at Raven and Starfire, respectively.

"Other way around," Raven muttered, lowering her hood as she took a drink of her usual morning tea.

"Oh," Tim said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Should have known. Robin said Raven was the one with the chakra."

Raven looked up, caught slightly off guard. "You know about chakra?"

Tim shrugged. "I do my research." A sudden grin crossing his face, he added, "So, tell me, does Robin still print out fanfiction?"

Raven, who had just taken a large drink of tea, buckled forward, choking. "Does he still do _what?!_"

"He never told you?" Tim pressed on, heedless to Robin's desperate motions to shut up. "Back when we still lived together, he'd love going on the internet and printing out fanfictions so he could read on the go!"

"Really?" Beastboy laughed out loud, glancing at his leader.

"Something tells me Beastboy's going to remember this one for a while," Raven muttered, trying to sound annoyed with him, but giving a small smirk of her own.

"Oh, he'll never forget it!" Beastboy laughed.

"Please, friends, what is this- fan fiction you speak of?" Starfire abruptly asked, causing a somewhat awkward silence.

Tim finally broke it by turning towards his brother and asking, "So, isn't there supposed to be a fifth guy? Where's Cyborg?"

"He's on leave with the Titans East," Robin explained. "He might not be back for a while."

"Hm," Tim shrugged. "Too bad, I'd have liked to meet the whole gang while I'm here." Clapping his hands together, he said, "So! What about this closet I've been hearing so much about?"

"Glad to finally get around to it," Robin muttered, his hands still over his face. "Come on, let's get going."

As the group headed out into the hall towards Beastboy's room, Tim started speaking again. "This reminds me of a hotel I stayed at once. It was me and two friends. It was a long night out, and we got home after a long convention, only to find that the elevators were out of order, so we had to climb about a hundred flights of stairs to get to our room. Well, before we started going up, we agreed to pass the time a little. One of my friends told jokes for the first thirty floors, the other sang some songs for forty more, and I would tell some sad stories for the last thirty. So, after we'd finally climbed seventy floors up, I turned around and said, 'I've got a very sad story for you: I forgot the room key in the car.'"

Beastboy burst out laughing, and though she'd never admit it, even Raven gave a smile- hidden under her hood, granted, but still.

Finally, they stepped into Beastboy's room. Tim put his hand to his chin as he contemplated the strange door in front of him. "So, you say this just randomly appeared? Nothing on the security cameras?"

"We're certain," Robin affirmed.

"Well, couldn't tell you much about that," Tim shrugged. "Maybe the place is haunted."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Raven grudgingly admitted, thinking of a particularly memorable incident involving a horror movie coming to life. Not one of her best memories, especially considering her own role in that haunting...

Stepping forward, Tim turned the knob and took a look inside. Giving a low whistle, he said, "Wow, it's dark in here. So, what, you guys don't want to use it?"

"Use it?" Beastboy asked, scratching his head.

"Well, yeah, I mean, I know it's unnatural, but you still have a closet here to put some stuff in. Kind of... empty right now, you know what I mean? Seems a shame to just have an empty closet here..."

He spent a few minutes poking around the walls, running his hand along the grey streaks, giving a knock here, a tap there. Finally, he turned to the other door leading out of the little closet- and out into Raven's room.

"No!" Robin, Starfire, and Beastboy called out simultaneously.

Tim, unheeding, opened the door and stepped through. Another low whistle. "This one's kind of dark, too. Nice atmosphere, though. Whose room is this?"

Paralyzed, the other titans glanced at Raven, who, they were surprised to see, had her hood pulled down just about as far as it could go. "That would be mine," she said. "I'd appreciate it if you'd come out, now."

Beastboy raised an eyebrow. Raven typically got more aggressive than that...

"Oh, sorry," Tim said, coming back with his arms raised. "You mind if I go through there to take the measurements?"

"I... I guess you'll have to," Raven said, reluctance clear in her voice.

Tim gave a small bow. "Thank you," he said. "Alright, I'll get started here. You guys can go and do... I don't know, whatever. I'll get to you as soon as I've got the measurements..."

XXXX

For the next few hours, we see that the four titans still in the _**tower**_ spent the waiting time in the living room. Once more, while they make a valiant effort at going about their usual business, they all seem affected by the inherent strangeness and blatant ignorance of physics going on in their home. Tim walked in from time to time to give them updates, and to request permission to enter certain rooms, but overall, they seemed to spend the time waiting on tenterhooks for the final verdict to fall.

Finally, Tim entered the room, some papers and a measuring tape in his hands. Sitting down next to Robin, he said, "Well. Well, well, well."

"Well, what?" Robin asked, as the other three gathered closer, eager to hear what Tim had discovered.

Tim rubbed his temples as he spoke. "Well, the good news is, your measurements were wrong. Your _**tower**_ isn't bigger on the inside by a quarter inch."

"Oh, good," Robin said. "Now we can-"

"I'm not finished," Tim said, raising his hand. "As I was saying, your _**tower**_ isn't bigger on the inside by a quarter inch. It's smaller on the outside by 5/16 of an inch."

Silence fell over the room as they all stared at him. Looking up, he shrugged. "I know, it's weird, and I measured it again and again, but it always came out the same. Take a look." He tapped a hand on the papers. They all bent forward and read out the results:

Outside: 103 ft., 11.75 inches.

Inside: 104 ft., .0625 inches.

"This... isn't possible!" Robin growled, frustration evident in his voice. "This isn't right!"

"I know, believe me!" Tim said, his eyes wide. "I checked my math again and again, but that's what it always comes out as!"

"Perhaps there was an error in the device you used to measure the _**tower**_?" Starfire suggested.

"I thought of that, too," Tim said. "I even went out and got different measuring tapes, too. No change. Always 5/16 smaller on the outside."

For a moment, they all sat there, dumbfounded. Finally, Robin said, "Alright, I didn't want to do this, but... if there's no other way..."

They all watched as he pulled out his communicator and punched a couple buttons. In a few seconds, the image of Cyborg came up on screen.

"Hey, Robin!" he said, smiling as he saw who it was. "What's going on?"

"You just about done over in Steel City?" Robin asked.

"I'm on my way back right now," Cyborg nodded. "Should be there in a day or two. Why?"

"Something's come up..."

"Oh, really? Hope you're not kicking too much bad guy butt without me!"

"No, nothing like that," Robin said, searching for the right words to explain. "It's... something in the _**tower**_..."

Cyborg listened closely as Robin explained everything to him, from finding the closet to the discovery of that fraction of an inch, to calling in his brother for help.

"I _did_ wonder why there were two of you," Cyborg said, a small smile appearing on his face. "Alright, I'll try to get home as quickly as I can. I've got some instruments that should get a good enough reading. Don't know why you're so worried, though- seems kind of obvious the problem's with your equipment."

"I hope so," Robin admitted quietly. "Well, see you when you get back."

"See you around," Cyborg agreed, before they both hung up.

Robin and Tim turned to each other, and gave small laughs. It was no secret that both of them felt foolish, to some degree. "Funny how all it took was an imaginary quarter inch of space to get us together again, huh?" Tim said.

"Yeah," Robin agreed, rubbing the back of his head. "Sometimes I think... sometimes I feel like I was just looking for an excuse to call you up."

"Well," Tim laughed, "I know you like everything to be complicated, but I can think of some simpler ways of getting me out here." Seeing his brother looking away, he added, "By the way, I found something interesting in the Bible earlier-"

"More jokes?" Robin interrupted. "Glad to see you haven't changed at all."

"Hey, hear me out!" Tim objected. "Jesus and his followers were riding into a city where they found a criminal about to be stoned to death. Jesus stood between the criminal and her persecutors, and called out, 'If there is one of you without sin, let them cast the first stone!' And suddenly, out from the crowd, a stone came sailing, missing the criminal by a few inches. Jesus turned to the one who threw it, put his hands on his hips, and called out, 'That isn't funny, mother!'"*

XXXX

Tasteless jokes aside, it is shown that Tim adapted very quickly to life in the _**tower**_, resolving to stay until the whole thing was decidedly over.

One day found him entering the closet to do another examination, where he found Raven and Starfire hard at work with something. Taking a closer look, he smiled and said, "Well, I see you took my advice about putting up some shelves."

"I've got a lot of books," Raven shrugged, picking up a screwdriver to... drive in a screw. "Might as well use the space, since we have it."

"Nice," Tim smiled. "Well, don't let me-"

Starfire cut him off as he turned to leave. "Tim!" she said. "I have something to inquire of you!"

"Yeah, what is it, Starfire?" Tim asked, turning around. He hadn't quite gotten around to using nicknames yet.

"Do you know of anyone named Emma?" Starfire asked, eagerly scanning his face for some spark of recognition. Unfortunately, she was disappointed.

"Emma?" Tim repeated. "No, can't say I know the name. Where did you hear it?"

Starfire looked down. "Nowhere," she said, sounding put out.

"Okay," Tim said, looking uncertain. "Well, gotta go..."

As he walked out, Raven turned on Starfire. "I didn't even realize you were capable of lying, Starfire."

"Who says I was lying?"

"It was... kind of obvious," Raven said. "Where did you hear the name Emma?"

Starfire looked uncertain. "I... I don't know if I should speak-"

"Star, I'm your _friend,_" Raven said. "You can tell me."

Starfire still looked uncertain, but she nodded. "Very well. Robin seems to have a close relationship with someone named Emma. He cries out her name at night, I've heard him saying it many times."

Raven looked curious. "That is odd..." she muttered. "Have you tried asking him about it?"

"I tried, but he denied knowing anyone with that name. He was clearly lying..."

Raven looked at her distressed friend. It was no particular secret to the group that Starfire harbored affection for the boy wonder- Raven could definitely see why she'd be distressed at the idea of there being another girl Robin was close to. "Don't worry about it," Raven said, doing her best to sound reassuring. "I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe it's just some girl he knew in school- or something."

Seeing that Starfire wasn't much reassured, she turned her attention back to the shelves. "We're not quite done here, yet," she said. "We need the shelf to touch the walls at both sides."

"Why?" Starfire asked, looking confused.

"I'll show you when we're finished," Raven promised.

A little later, they finally finished the shelves, perfectly shaped to the walls. They chose to place on the shelf an assortment of books and movies. Once they were all tightly packed in, Raven pulled out one of the thicker volumes at one end, causing a domino effect as the books fell over, one by one, only to be stopped by the wall. "See?" Raven said with a small smile. "Walls make the perfect bookends."

Starfire smiled in amazement, all thoughts of Emma, for the moment, forgotten.

XXXX

The next day came the long-awaited moment when the _**tower**_ doors opened and Cyborg finally returned. "Man, it's good to be back," he said, stretching his arms as he climbed the steps. "I mean, a change of scene is good, and all, but nothing beats Jump City." Smiling to himself, he entered the living room.

As he did, Tim happened to be going the other way. "Oh, hey!" he said, looking at the new arrival. "You must be Cyborg! Glad to finally meet you! Robin and Beastboy have told me a lot about you!"

"Hey, you're Tim, aren't you?" Cyborg said, smiling. "Can't say I've heard much about you, but you're Robin's brother, so I can't imagine you being too bad."

"Bad at measuring, apparently," Tim shrugged. "We've measured this _**tower**_ of yours so many times it isn't funny, but we _still_ can't figure it out."

"Oh, we can take care of that real quick," Cyborg said, smiling, "but first, I gotta get me some lunch."

As he headed over to the kitchen to prepare an entire ham, the other titans filtered into the living room to welcome their friend back.

"Yeah, it's so good to have the _murderer _back!" Beastboy growled, glowering at the ham Cyborg was preparing, but the titans knew him too well to take him seriously- he was just as glad to see Cyborg back as they were, not least because his appearance offered a final resolution to the mystery.

XXXX

Finally, after Cyborg had been back for a few hours, he stood up from a movie they'd all been watching together and clapped his hands. "Well, let's put this ghost of yours in the grave," he said. "I've got some great measuring tools that'll give us a 100% accurate measurement of the _**tower**_."

Slowly, they all headed up to Beastboy's room, and then into the closet. As they waited for Cyborg to set everything up, Robin turned to Tim. "So, what are you planning on doing after all this is over-with?"

"I'm on vacation time right now," Tim said. "I'll probably check into a hotel until it's over, then head back to Gotham, get back to my regular job."

Robin couldn't help feeling a sense of loss at the idea of seeing his brother off once more. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to waste your vacation time with all this."

"Hey, no worries," Tim shrugged. "Wouldn't have missed it for anything. It's been a blast, it really has."

"Maybe you could... stay?" Robin suggested, glancing at his brother out of the corner of his eye. "I know you've got some skill- you could join up..."

Tim laughed. "Sorry, but I'll have to turn you down. I don't think I'm really... Titan material. Besides, I've got a life back in Gotham. Just... remember to call me a little more, okay?"

Robin was on the point of coming up with some sort of retort when Cyborg announced, "Alright, people, this thing is ready to roll!"

Everyone turned their attention to the instrument Cyborg was using. The tension was so thick, it could almost be cut with a knife. The instrument fired off a beam in both directions out of the door, and through all the holes drilled by Robin days earlier. Everyone watched with baited breath as the machine calibrated itself, and numbers began zooming by on a screen, as the exact length of the _**tower**_ was calculated...

Finally, it settled on a single number:

103 ft., 11.75 inches.

Tim gave a whoop of triumph. Cyborg gave a somewhat self-satisfied smirk, and the others let out breath they hadn't even realized they were holding.

"I'll run it one more time, just to be sure," Cyborg smiled, firing it up again.

"And while you do that, how about we celebrate with a movie?" Tim suggested. He turned to the shelves on the side of the closet and selected a film. Casually, he pulled it off the shelf, causing a domino effect as the books and movies toppled over, falling right over the edge of the shelf, revealing the 2-foot space between the shelf and the wall.

Tim, thinking nothing of it, offered a quick apology and reached down to pick up the fallen tomes.

Starfire, on the other hand, let out a scream.

_XXXX_

_*_I apologize if I offended anyone with this one.

And, that's another chapter completed. Thanks, once more to those of you supporting the story. It's always great to hear from you.

I feel there's something I should note, however, about the original book, _**House**_ of Leaves. It's something you'd probably discover for yourself, but since I'm recommending it to you guys so whole-heartedly, I feel I should tell you that there are parts that are very... explicit. (Mostly in Johnny's story, the half of the book I'm not covering. I'd explain more about that, but it gets very convoluted and confusing, and I could probably fill up five more pages talking about it.) Just in case that's something that might put you off the book. Like, if it were a movie, it would almost definitely be R-rated.

But that stuff isn't important to my story. I just felt it was something I should warn you about, if I'm recommending the book to you. If you weren't planning on checking the book out anyways, or if that stuff doesn't put you off, then feel free to skip all these notes at the end. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism or questions welcome, flames will be used to defrost my car in the morning, Gamer4 out.


	4. The Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway

Gamer4 in. The opening to this chapter might seem a little weird, but that's because it was part of the _beginning_ of the original book, and I somehow neglected to put it in up until now. But, it actually fits fairly well here, so I don't feel an overpowering need to go back and change it. Anyways, onwards and upwards, and forwards, they say.

Disclaimer: A quick look through my stories would be enough for anyone to know that I _despise _writing these things...

Chapter IV

The Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway

When discussing the film released by the Titans after they left the _**tower**_, one must always make mention of two strange shorts released by them months before the release of the film itself, and people's reactions to them.

The first time anyone on the outside (barring Tim, assuming everything was true) heard of the problems the Titans were experiencing in their _**tower**_ was with the release of a fun little short entitled "The Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway," so named because it was five and a half minutes long. It was an optical illusion regarding a hallway in Titans _**Tower**_, and would typically not make sense to the one who watched it until the film was released several months later.

In this short, the camera is held by Robin, and, while nobody actually appears on camera, we can deduce from voices that other people involved with the filming included Cyborg, Tim, and Starfire, though Beastboy and Raven seem to be absent. Robin, the camera in his hands shaking somewhat, turns to a door on the wall of the living room. He approaches this door slowly, zooming in on the fine paneling and textures, before turning to a nearby window. Opening the window, he pushes the camera out and focuses on what would be the other side of the door, except there's nothing out there except the outer wall of the _**tower**_. At one point, he tosses a small rock across the wall, an act which wouldn't make sense until a few moments later, when the camera reenters the Titans' living room. Here, it returns to that door, and Robin, having proven that nothing can logically be behind this door except a wall or a very small closet, he moves forward, reaches out his hand, and pulls it open.

On the other side is no wall or closet, but a long, dark hallway, continuing down for roughly ten feet before coming to an abrupt end. The camera zooms in and out, affirming the hallway's presence, before Robin returns to the window and shows us the other side of the door again. But where there should be a ten-foot protuberance of some kind, there is still only the other side of a wall. Having affirmed the impossibility of what's on camera, Robin returns to the door and zooms in on the hallway again, still present, lurking just beyond the camera's lens. He takes a few steps forward, but is stopped by Starfire's sudden cry: "Please, friend Robin! Do not enter the hallway of darkness!"

Though we can't see Tim in the shot, we can easily imagine him scratching the back of his head as he says, "Yeah, I'm with Star on this one, bro. Doesn't seem like a good idea."

Here, Robin stops, but slowly reaches out his hand into the hallway. Abruptly, he withdraws. "Wow, it's cold in there," he muttered, shaking his hand.

This short was succeeded a month or so later by the disturbing, enigmatic _Exploration #4_. This one, compared to _Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway_ was very clearly _not _one continuous shot, and was much longer. While we can't divulge every detail of the second short, we can go over a few separate segments, including an exasperated Robin taking a drink of coffee and thinking out loud: "They've been down there too long..." No clarification is given as to who "they" are or where "there" is. "It's no good," he mutters, taking another drink. "We'll have to go in eventually..."

A few random shots, including the _**tower**_ surrounded by trees, a red substance spreading across a tiled floor-

And then we see a shot of Cyborg, Raven, and Tim all working together to hold Starfire back from something. "HE- IS NOT- GONE!" Starfire is shouting, fighting tooth and nail to leap towards something off-screen. "WE MUST GO IN AFTER HIM!"

A shot of a young woman with pink hair pulled up into two spikes on the sides of her head, dressed in black. She is running desperately through a long, dark hallway.

A shot of another young woman, dressed in a black shirt and jeans, with long, blond hair. She has a young man dressed in blue leaning on her. "Terra Markov," she is muttering to herself as she pushes through a similar hallway. "Born in Colony 9, Markovia. Came to Jump City in 2007. I'm not alone down here- it's watching me- stalking me- maybe human, maybe not- long fingers- Terra Markov, Colony 9, Markovia, Jump City, 2007... Terra Markov, Colony 9, Markovia, Jump City, 2007-"

XXXX

A great deal of debate raged over these shorts, particularly in relation to each other, debates that only grew more furious with the release of the film that tied them all together. Several considered them little more than previews of a coming attraction, others consider them an essential part of the film's experience, and still others consider them great moments of cinema in their own rights. Once more, the Titans don't seem to care one way or the other about their audience's belief. However, in analyzing the film they released, it seems that none can go without mentioning these predeceasing shorts, and the bearing they have on the film as a whole.

XXXX

Returning to the film itself, when the camera fades in again, a great deal of time has passed since the incident in the closet, where the closet itself seemingly expanded by two feet. Tim neglected to check into his hotel, electing instead to remain behind and help his new friends try to solve the unrelenting mystery surrounding the _**tower**_\- the undeniable fact that the insides were a good two feet larger than the outside. While they analyze the issue from all sorts of different angles, they can find no answer to how their home has suddenly become so strange.

In absence of measurements, now that the anomaly is so blatant, Robin, Tim and Cyborg turn instead to science to try and find an explanation for it. Raven falls back on her books, from ancient tomes to modern Azarian dissertations, trying to find some branch of magic to explain the strange goings-on, but so far, even this had turned up no results. Starfire and Beastboy, belonging neither to the realms of earthly science or Azarian magic, were increasingly shut out altogether.

One day found the two of them together, in the living room. Cyborg and Tim were working together in the closet, as usual, while Raven and Robin were in their respective rooms, poring over books of magic and science. Starfire and Beastboy found themselves sitting together on the couch, watching a movie. It was about this time that they began a conversation, not noticing as Raven slipped into the living room behind them, heading over to the kitchen to brew a cup of tea.

It started innocently enough, as a character named- wouldn't you know it- Emma was introduced to the plot. Beastboy glanced over as he saw Starfire give a small twitch out of the corner of his eye. "Something wrong, Star?"

Starfire briefly considered the situation, and decided, this time, to come clean right away. Her friends had a way of getting her secrets out of her. She smiled... perhaps it was better that way, unable to hide her troubles...

"It is that name... Emma," Starfire said. "I have heard-"

"Oh," Beastboy said, looking downcast. "So you've heard it, too, huh? I was kind of hoping you wouldn't..."

"You have heard Robin saying that name, too?"

"Of course," Beastboy nodded. "My room is right next to his, and I have better hearing, remember?" he motioned at his ears. "I don't know exactly when it started... he just starts muttering in hi sleep, over and over again. 'Emma, Emma.' I thought it might be... well, you probably know. He never says anything else about her, just that name."

Starfire looked downcast. Beastboy gave a small jump. Waving his hands in front of him, he quickly added, "I- I don't mean it like that! I mean, I'm sure it's just-"

Raven had heard enough. Not sticking around to hear Beastboy digging himself into a deeper hole, she headed through the doors, strode furiously down to Robin's door, and banged on it.

A second later, it slid open, revealing a somewhat disgruntled-looking Robin on the other side, a few stray papers that looked like the _**tower**_'s building plans under his arm. "Something wrong, Raven?" he asked.

"I'll tell you what's wrong- Emma," Raven said.

As an empath, Raven prided herself on being able to read emotions like an open book. That said, she wasn't quite prepared for the wave of emotion that rolled off of Robin at this simple word- a mixture of dread and sorrow- and, strangely placed, some sort of remorse. Even stranger, Robin didn't seem to show any sign of it on his face. Taking a deep breath, he responded, "I already told Star, I don't know anyone by that name." He quickly moved to close the door, only for Raven to stick her foot out to prevent this.

"Look, I don't care if you keep your secrets," she said, a slight fire burning in her eyes. "All the secrets I keep, how could I? What I do care about is when Starfire is hurting because you won't tell her the truth. You must realize how this looks to her?"

Robin backed up. "It's nothing like that," he said firmly. "I wouldn't keep it secret if I thought it could hurt her to do it-"

"It _is_ hurting her," Raven interrupted. "She's going around, asking everyone she can if they know who Emma is, she's confused why you won't tell her yourself, and scared about the reason for it. Robin-"

"I need to go out," Robin interrupted.

"...What?" Raven asked, slightly taken aback.

"I'm heading out," Robin said, pushing past her. "There are a couple books I wanted to look at at the library."

Raven stared as her leader marched down the hall, turned to the elevator, and stepped out of sight. This was strange...

Sighing, and remembering her still-brewing tea, she turned back to the living room. She'd press him again when he got back, enough as was necessary to get the answers she was looking for.

XXXX

On the outside, with the trace of a sigh, Robin followed through on what he'd said. He made tracks for the library- though with no clear idea of the books he was actually looking for. Vaguely, he began pulling some books of M. C. Escher and Salvadore Dali off the shelves and scanning through them. It was strange, he thought, how different the impossible was in a book. It was one thing to look at an Escher or Dali picture, when you knew you could return to reality just by closing the book, another altogether when there was a violation of everything you ever knew in your own home, in what you had previously defined as 'reality...'

He was broken out of his reverie when a voice behind him muttered, "Raven said I'd find you here." He turned to see Tim walking towards him.

"You come to chew me out, too?" Robin guessed.

"No, nothing like that," Tim said, raising his hands in surrender. "It's just that... my vacation time is over tomorrow. Sorry, buddy, I have to be going soon. I'm heading to a hotel tonight, then I'm going to catch a train back to Gotham tomorrow."

Once again, Robin felt that strange sense of loss at the idea of his brother leaving. "Sorry to see you go," he finally said. "I'll miss you."

"Hey, it's not like it'll be forever," Tim laughed. "I know I wasn't trained by the greatest detective ever, but I _did_ notice that you've got a phone in that _**tower**_ of yours."

"It even rings," Robin easily retorted. For a moment, they stared at each other, then they stepped forward to embrace. "See you around," Robin said.

"Yeah, see you around," Tim repeated with a smile.

XXXX

Robin let out a sigh as he stepped back into the _**tower**_. After a while out in the city, he'd come to a decision. He was going to apologize to Raven, and have a talk with Starfire. He couldn't bear the idea that he was causing the Tamaranian princess pain. But first, he had a stop to make.

He headed up to the closet, where he found Cyborg, taking a break from working on the extra two feet to stand up and glare at it, furious at its simple existence. "Got some books for you," Robin quietly muttered, tossing a couple of scientific tomes to the half-robot.

"Thanks," Cyborg muttered, not entirely sure how they would help, but willing to accept anything at this point.

At that moment, Starfire came floating in. "Hello, friends, have you discovered anything?" she asked hopefully.

"Nothing," Cyborg muttered. "There's no way this should exist. This is an abomination of space."

"Yeah..." Robin said, only half paying attention. "Say, Starfire, have you seen Raven anywhere?"

Starfire was on the point of answering, when to their ears came a new noise: the sound of laughter, coming from the vague area of the living room. "Sounds like Beastboy's about to crack down there," Cyborg said with a vague smile, returning to the two feet.

As they sat there, they picked up the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, followed by the door being flung open. There stood Beastboy, making wild motions with his arms, but seeming almost incapable of speech. His eyes were wide, and his skin seemed to have turned white. But that wasn't what caught their eyes: it was that his mouth was entirely motionless, and he was very clearly not laughing. And yet they could all still hear a continuing, wild laughter-

"Beastboy!" Robin shouted, jumping up. "Is something wrong with Raven?"

Beastboy continued with his wild motions, waving his arms in the direction of the living room, but apparently unable or unwilling to speak. Throwing only a brief look at each other, the other three shot out of the closet and down the hallway. Sure enough, as they approached, the laughter began to distinguish itself as being in Raven's voice. They increased their pace- whenever Raven laughed, it generally meant something bad was going on, but this... this laughter was just _wild_.

Finally, they burst into the living room, whereupon Starfire gave a great gasp, Cyborg's jaw almost literally dropped to the ground, and Robin reeled back as though he'd been punched in the stomach. On the left wall of the _**tower**_, a new hallway had suddenly appeared, roughly ten feet deep, and made of that same black-with-streaks-of-gray material as the closet. And sitting a foot or so in, curled up on the ground, with her legs pulled up to her body, and laughing like a maniac, was Raven.

Only when they'd entered the living room did they realize that words were mixed in with the laughter. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall!" Raven was crying. "Show me! Define me! I am the Eternal Telmerain! I am not an Anti-Existence- I am the perfect chain!"*

While none of the titans could make heads or tails of what she was saying, it is immediately obvious that Raven isn't the only one affected by this strange new addition. As soon as Starfire's eyes fell on the hallway, she gave a brief scream and began flying as far back from the darkness as possible. It is only now that we realize that she seems to suffer from an acute claustrophobia.

Between Raven's rambling, Beastboy's wild arm motions, and Starfire desperately pushing as far away from the hallway as possible, only Robin and Cyborg were left thinking rationally. Robin, seeing the main problem, rushed towards the hallway and pulled Raven forcibly out of it. As he did, he noticed, in passing, that the air seemed to turn very cold at the hallway's threshold. The moment she was out of the hallway, Raven collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Robin picked her up, handed her off to Cyborg, who was stronger, and began ushering the group out of the living room and towards the medical lab.

XXXX

Once there, they placed Raven gently in one of the beds, where she began floating a couple inches off the surface. They'd seen this before- this was her natural defenses kicking in, her powers healing her subconsciously. Determining that there was no immediate danger, they instead turned to each other. "What- the heck- is that?!" Cyborg started, managing to keep from hysteria, but just barely. "If someone has the time, would they mind _explaining what's happening to this __**tower**_?"

Starfire sat down on one of the beds, sobbing quietly into her hands, clearly rattled. Robin sat down, putting his hand around her shoulder. "It's going to be okay, Star," he said quietly, doing his best to reassure her. "It's going to be okay."

Beastboy collapsed onto a bed as well, taking deep breaths, doing his best to calm down, though his eyes were still bugging out a bit.

"We cannot go in there!" Starfire said, also doing her best to calm down. "Please, Robin, promise me you will not enter that hallway!"

Robin hesitated slightly, but then gave a small nod. "Alright, Star, I promise." Turning to Beastboy, he said, "Beastboy, can you talk?"

Though he still looked somewhat ready to vomit, Beastboy nodded. "I- I think so," he said.

"Good," Robin said. "Now, I need you to tell me, as best you can, what happened there."

"I don't know," Beastboy said earnestly. "I was just sitting there, playing video games by myself, when I suddenly heard this laughing behind me. I turned around, and there was Raven, sitting in that hallway! That's when I ran up for you guys..."

Robin quietly stood up. "Well, I don't know what's going on here," he said, "but I think we'll need to call in some extra help." With that, he headed out.

Cyborg stared after him for a little bit, then quietly said, "Yeah, I'll call in some help, too." With that, he began punching in a number in his arm.

XXXX

As it turns out, Tim hadn't even made it to the hotel before Robin gave him his call-back. He was skeptical at first, but all traces of this vanished when he returned to the _**tower**_. We see him staring, dumbfounded, at the newest addition to the room. "Apparently, closets are for wimps," he muttered quietly, examining the hallway closely. He turned to the window, pushed it open, and gazed outside. "No sign of it from out here," he announced.

"We figured that," Robin muttered. "Any ideas on what to do about it?"

"Call an exorcist," Tim said, only half-joking. "As far as what I can do, well... we'll see."

Over the course of the next day, he builds a door and installs it into the wall, sealing off the hallway. He furnished the door with no less than five locks. "Don't worry," he later assured the group. "This one's on me."

"I hope you don't get in too much trouble with your job," Robin mused, watching his brother at work.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Tim said good-naturedly. "I called them up. Explained it was a family emergency. I've got a little more time over here." Smiling, he finally locked up the door, and stepped back to admire his work. "Honestly," he said, "I'd be more concerned about you. Aren't there supposed to be a lot of baddies out here? Like that one guy- what was his name- Slake?"

"Slade," Robin said shortly. "No, he's not a problem. He's dead- he's been dead for a year."

"Oh, really?" Tim asked, his eyebrows raised. "How did that happen?"

"I don't like to talk about it," Robin muttered. "So, that door will hold, right?"

"Sturdy as they come," Tim agreed. "You know, what I think you need is to get the word out- maybe get a professional opinion."

"How do I do that?" Robin asked.

Tim shrugged. "Make a video of it?" he suggested. "If all else fails, you can post it on Youtube."

XXXX

The general agreement is that this segment is to thank for the production of _The Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway_. Everything seems to fit- Beastboy and Raven's absence, Tim's return, and the door placed on the hallway itself. While the short would play into the film later on, this still doesn't stop many people from considering it to be the trailer it was considered from the beginning. Perhaps interest in this mechanic (after all, whether it was real or faked, the inclusion of the trailer as part of the film is a clever touch) was more eclipsed by what was to follow. Either way, it is still the opinion of many people that the short, regardless of how it ties to the film, is a masterpiece of modern cinema, and one frequently cited in discussions of the post-modern.

_XXXX_

_*_Apparently, I can't even resist giving references in a story as serious as this one. A tip of the hat to _Xenosaga, _a game series I have a very love-hate relationship with. Great story and gameplay, but _dang, _those bosses are so annoying...

Not as much 'punch' at the end of this chapter, but I'm hoping there's been enough advancement in the plot to satisfy. To let me know, please R&amp;R, constructive criticism and questions, as always, welcome to help make the story better, while I will use flames to stare into for hours on end, being hypnotized by the dancing fire, and finally falling asleep right where I sit, Gamer4 out.


	5. Exploration A: Robin's Visit

Gamer4 in. We're advancing into the heart of the plot now. And, coming up, one of the most well-known passages from the original book.

Disclaimer: I own... a copy of each of the Xenosaga games. And, if my previous notes were any indication, I love them, but am terrible at playing them.

Chapter V

Exploration A: Robin's Visit

As the film shows, Starfire was reluctant to leave Raven's side during the latter's time in the medical bay. She was aware there wasn't much she could do to help, mostly due to the fact they still had no idea what was wrong to begin with, but she still couldn't bring herself to leave. Even as the others discuss what to do about the newest addition to their home, she stays by Raven, waiting for her to awaken, which, thankfully, she finally does.

We see Starfire half asleep, sitting in a chair in the lab, when Raven abruptly begins to lower down onto the bed. Her eyes flickered, and she raised her head, putting one hand up to it as she did, as though she had a major headache. Starfire suddenly snapped awake like she'd been given a quadruple overdose of sugar mixed into a quintuple overdose of coffee. "Friend Raven!" she cried, sheer joy in her voice. "You have awoken!"

"What happened?" Raven muttered, rubbing her forehead. "The last thing I remember was turning to the wall, and there was this-" Here, she snapped up, suddenly extremely attentive. Turning, she said, "Star, did anyone go in the hallway?"

"You mean the hallway of darkness?" Starfire asked. "No. No one has entered."

"Good. Keep it that way," Raven said immediately. "There's something not right about that place." Looking around, she added, "How long have I been unconscious?"

"It is the second day since you passed out," Starfire said. "We have been most worried! You were... laughing, and saying... strange things..."

Raven shook her head. "I don't remember anything like that," she muttered. "The last thing I remember is stepping into the hallway, and I got this feeling- this overwhelming feeling..." she shuddered, looking terrified at the very prospect.

"Evil?" Starfire guessed.

"Not exactly," Raven said. "More like... emptiness." For a moment, they were both silent, then Raven asked, "What's everyone else doing?"

"They are in the process of studying the hallway now," Starfire explained. "Tim has returned!" she added, somewhat more brightly. "He put a door over the hallway, and locked it!"

Raven opened and closed her mouth for a moment, as though she was at a loss for what, exactly, to say, but finally, she simply said, "Well... that's a start. Where's my cloak?"

"Here it is," Starfire said immediately, producing said article of clothing. Raven immediately took it and drew it tightly around herself.

"Come on," she said, getting to her feet. "Let's go."

XXXX

Out in the living room, Robin, Tim, Cyborg, and Beastboy were sitting on the couch discussing what to do, with occasional glances back at that mocking door. They all turned around, however, when the main doors slid open and Raven and Starfire entered.

"Hey, Raven!" Beastboy cried, springing up with delight in his eyes. "You're back up!"

"Always the tone of surprise," Raven muttered. "Who put up the locks?"

"That was me," Tim said, raising his hand.

"Good. Give me the keys," she said, holding out her hand.

"W- What?" Tim asked, taken aback.

"The keys. I need them."

"Why?"

"No one can go into that hallway," Raven said. "There's nothing in there for us."

"Whoah, hold on, now!" Cyborg objected. "If we just keep it locked up all the time, how are we going to find out anything out about it?"

"I don't care about finding anything out," Raven retorted. "It's going to stay locked up."

Tim stood up. "Look, Rae, I agree that it's weird. There's no denying that. It's definitely out of the ordinary. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's _bad_. I think there's something to be said for taking a closer look. If we can find out what's going on here, then we can make better decisions about what to do about it. Wouldn't that be- you know- the logical thing to do?"

Raven looked up at him. They could all tell she was indecisive about this one- on the one hand, he had a point, and on the other hand, she really didn't like that hallway.

Cyborg raised his hand. "And, if it makes you feel better, Rae, I called in some extra help of my own. Trust me, when they get here, we're going to be able to do a fully safe investigation. We won't let anything bad happen to anyone."

Finally, Raven caved. "Alright," she said. "But I still want the keys. I'll keep them in my room until your 'help' gets here. I don't want anyone going into that hallway until we know what we're doing."

"Alright," Tim said, handing her the keys. "Let's just stay calm about all this."

"Calm," Raven said. "Why shouldn't we be calm? We've just got ten feet of space in our living room that shouldn't exist, what is there to not be calm about?"

XXXX

Following the timestamps, we are able to tell that a day or so passes between the end of this clip and the start of the next one. What follows is, for whatever reason, often the part of the film least discussed, and starring a character that is absent from the entire rest of the film- the Titans' beloved pet maggot, Silky. None of the Titans are in the living room at the time except for Beastboy, who is busy making a tofu sandwich on whole-wheat bread in the kitchen. For reasons unknown, the hallway's door is open- perhaps the rest of the group got Raven's permission to do some investigation, but forgot to close the door? The exact reason is unknown, and the fact that this clip has so little context with the rest of the film hardly helps.

At any rate, Beastboy was making his sandwich, when Silky came crawling into the room. Gurgling happily, the little maggot began making its way towards the hallway, as if eager to investigate him/herself. Beastboy doesn't look up until a second or so before Silky reaches the hallway, and though he makes a lurching moment forward, he is too late to stop the creature from entering the hallway.

Except it doesn't enter: it seems to be stopped abruptly directly on the threshold. For a moment, the maggot looks up, seemingly confused, and, if it were a dog or cat, we can imagine it pawing curiously at the hallway, before turning around and crawling off.

Beastboy stares at what he's seen, then steps out from in the kitchen and hesitantly steps towards the hallway himself. Shaking slightly, he reaches out a hand and attempts to put it in. However, his hand seemed to meet a barrier directly at the threshold, right where Silky had stopped crawling. Curious, he pushes against this barrier as hard as he can, for the only time in the film, actively attempting to enter the hallway. However, no matter how hard he pushes, he seems to be pressed back by a wall of inflexible air.

Surprisingly, there has been very little discussion about this strange clip, despite all the questions it offers up. Why is the door open to begin with? Why can Silky seemingly not enter the hallway? Why does it seem as though Beastboy is under the same restriction? Are the two restrictions related? After all, as we later see, nobody else has any problem entering the hallway. Even stranger is that it seems to be unrelated to anything even within the world of the film itself- Beastboy seemingly never mentions his inability to enter the hallway to his teammates.

Given all the speculation offered to just about everything else in the film, it definitely seems strange that potentially the strangest scene of all has gone largely undiscussed.

XXXX

The next clip picks up in the living room, with the door closed once more, the day after that strange clip. For what seems to be the first time in a while, the alarms are blaring, flashing a red warning signal all over the _**tower**_. The doors slide open, and all five Titans, complete with one Tim, come rushing into the room.

"About time there was a villain," Beastboy mutters. While nobody else actively agrees, they don't actively disagree, either. It seems like it's almost a relief to have a normal villain attacking after all the strangeness that's been going on lately.

"So, who is it?" Tim asked casually. "I've never met any of these people, so-"

"Foolish newbie!" Came a sudden voice, echoing over the room. "It is I! Master of monsters, Control Freak!"

The television had flickered, and the image of a large fat man with red hair and sideburns appeared. "Um... who's this guy?" Tim asked. "I... don't think you told me about him."

"That's because he's just so unnotable," Raven muttered, her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You will regret that, my little tribble!" Control Freak cackled, and his image on the screen raised a remote. With a touch of a button and a flash of light, he appeared in the living room in front of them. "For this time, I, Control Freak, have-"

"Um... you know you already said your name, right?" Time suggested.

"What?" Control Freak repeated, sounding affronted.

"Your name. You already said it. You didn't need to say it a second time."

"Silence!" Control Freak cried. "You aren't even a real Titan! Now," he said, turning to the rest of the Titans. "Ah, yes- This time, I have compiled-"

Robin, seized by a sudden inspiration, said, "Don't bother, we surrender."

Everyone, Control Freak included, turned to gape, open-mouthed, at Robin. "What?"

"We surrender!" Robin said, his voice not changing tone at all. "Yes, you're just to clever an opponent, and as a valuable opponent, I know you'll listen to my advice when I say you can do anything you want with the _**tower**_ except grab a set of keys from Raven's room and open that door over there." As he spoke, he pointed at the door concealing the hallway- though Control Freak, of course, had no idea what was behind it.

Control Freak smirked, oblivious to the tension that had arisen since the door was mentioned. "How stupid do you think I am?" he asked. "Obviously, you have all your greatest secrets behind that door! I will pursue them at once!" And with that, he spun around, almost dancing to stand right in front of the door. From there, he announced, "However, you are foolish to think that I need any sort- of... keys..."

He faltered here for a fairly simple reason- he had raised his remote and opened the door immediately with a click. For a moment, he simply stood there, gazing, dumbfounded, into the yawning blackness. When he finally turned back to them, he said, "Umm... see you around," and with another button press, he was gone.

Slowly, the other titans turned to stare at Robin. "Dude, what did you just do?" Beastboy asked, dumbfounded.

"Hey, he's gone, isn't he?" Robin pointed out.

"That's not the point," Raven said. "When I said no one should go in that hallway, I meant _no one._ We have to keep that door locked until the help Cyborg called gets here. No sooner."

"I, too, think it was something of... the 'jerk move,'" Starfire admitted. "Though I am glad that he is gone, we could have easily fought him off..."

Robin looked at the ground. "Sorry," he muttered. "I didn't want to upset anyone."

"Hey, it's alright," Cyborg said. "After all, the _**tower**_'s not hurt, and that's a victory in my book. Let's just... keep the hallway behind the door from now on, okay?"

XXXX

The next thing we see is Robin laying down in his bed. Well, leaning against the wall in his bed might be a more apt description. He is staring at the ceiling, as though hoping it might offer some answers. Finally, he seems to come to a decision: he rises from his bed and picks up the camera, which seems to have been resting on his bedside-table. Whispering quietly, he explains- "We can't wait for whoever Cyborg called anymore. I'm going to check out that hallway for myself." Moving quietly, he stepped out into the main hallway of Titan's _**Tower**_. He crept down to the door marked _**Raven.**_ Quietly, it hissed open. Praying that she didn't awake, he slunk across the room to her bedside-table, where he found the keys.

As his hand reached out to grab them, he hears a noise that causes him to jump, briefly upsetting the camera- a soft grunting of sorts. Spinning around, but not failing to keep his silence, he saw that the noise was Raven, turning over in her sleep. To his surprise, her eyes were wide open, but she didn't seem to actually be awake. For a moment, she lay there, then she turned over again, and if she'd been awake to begin with, it seemed she'd slipped back into unconsciousness.

Moving very quietly, Robin slipped out of her room, and headed into the living room, where his camera turns to focus on the door. He steps over to it, then pulls out the keys and unlocks the locks. And then he steps in.

XXXX

The first thing Robin does, in the hallway, is turn the camera around to show all the walls. They seem to be identical to the walls in the closet between Beastboy and Raven's rooms- perfectly smooth, and mostly black, though with the occasional streak of grey. The same applies to the ceiling and floor. Robin, giving a slight shudder, mutters, "It really _is _cold in here." Nevertheless, set on his goal, he continued his walk down the hallway, until he arrives at the very end. Giving a small laugh, he muttered, "Well, that's not so bad. That's all we're worried about- ten feet?"

...Which is when he turns and sees that he has merely reached a corner- the hallway continues off to his right for about another twenty feet. "What the-" he mutters. "That's... that wasn't there before..."

Cautiously, and somewhat uncertainly, he continues down this new hallway- or was it new? Whatever the case, he arrived at the end of this hallway to find that it turned left, continuing for another ten feet in that direction. Heedless, he pushed on, determined to find the end of the hallway.

It continues on in this vein for awhile, with the hallway twisting and turning, though thankfully never splitting- no matter how far he went, getting back would be as simple as following the hallway.

This changes when the hallway suddenly seems to empty out into a much larger room. Robin gives a small gasp as he pans the camera around, taking in a vast area of darkness in all directions- even with night-vision, the camera couldn't capture any walls, or even a ceiling. Taking out a flashlight, he shines it around, hoping to discover something in this vast chamber, but his biggest discovery is that the floor is made out of that same black-grey material. Tentatively, he stepped forward, away from the hallway, making his way out into the room.

For a few minutes, he wanders around, at a loss to explain anything that was happening here. The hallway had turned out to be much larger than any of them had initially thought. And no matter how deep in he went, he could still only find more darkness, more hallways, and finally, this vast chamber, filled with- more darkness.

Finally, he sighed, conceding defeat. As far as he could tell, his little excursion had accomplished nothing except reaffirm the need for more help before they could actually penetrate its mysteries.

Suddenly, a noise came through the darkness, a noise that seemed to chill him to the bone, even more effectively than the relentless cold of the place.

It was a growl, a deep, guttural growl. He couldn't exactly pinpoint where it was coming from- rather than coming from any single source, it seemed to be all around him. As it echoed through the darkness, a sudden feeling overcame Robin, a feeling that's somewhat difficult to describe.

To try to understand how Robin felt in that moment, try this. Imagine there's a point. A point directly behind your head. The point you can't see. The point you can never see. And right there, just out of your line of sight, there's something creeping up behind you. Don't look! Keep looking at the screen you're reading this on, whether a computer, phone, iPad, whatever, keep looking at the screen. The comforting, familiar shape of these words. This glowing haven is safe. What's behind you isn't. If you look behind you, I can't guarantee you'll come out of this alive, let alone sane. Just ignore the point, keep reading, don't turn around.

Just like Robin didn't turn around.

Of course Robin turned around.

He spun around so fast it was like he was in a time warp. And when he did, he found that there was- nothing. Only more darkness.

But the growl persisted.

And it was here that Robin realized the biggest flaw in his plan- he hadn't marked the path he'd come in by at all. He couldn't pick out the direction he'd come from anymore than he could spot an ant on that relentlessly-black floor.

The growl sounded off again, seemingly drawing closer.

And for the first time in a while, Robin lost it. He began sprinting off in a near-random direction, desperate for to find the way out.

However, it didn't take him long to regain himself- it wouldn't do him any good to run off in the wrong direction. He had to keep calm, not panic. Slowly, doing his best to ignore the- as far as he could tell- far-off growl, he continued walking through the darkness. Finally, he found a wall. Well, that was a start. Unfortunately, he hadn't brought anything to mark it with, so, doing the best he could, he began sidling to the left, clinging to the wall as he did so.

The growl seemed to begin growing louder. Deciding that was the wrong direction, Robin changed his course and began sidling the opposite way, off to the right.

Finally, after a great deal of wall-clinging, he found a corner, and not long after, the entrance to a hallway. Whether it was the same hallway that had brought him here or another hallway altogether, he couldn't tell, but he had to start somewhere.

"Well, this is just great," he muttered to the camera as he headed off into the hall.

It takes all of three minutes for him to recognize that this time, he has really and truly gotten himself into a bind, when he finds a break in the hallway- it heads off at the same time to the right and to the left. Cursing quietly, he muttered, "No, this isn't right- there wasn't a fork here before..."

Suddenly, the growl sounded off again, almost right behind him. Jumping, he disregarded this, and shot off down the right tunnel, almost flat-out sprinting. While he could still hear the growling, it seemed to be fading away.

Once more, he brought himself to a halt. Running blindly wouldn't get him anywhere, he needed some sort of plan, he knew that. The problem was, all these halls looked the same. Endless black with grey- it wasn't like there was anything to distinguish any of it. Looking desperately around, he let out a call- "RAVEN!" The hallway answered with a merciless echo of "-AVEN! aven! aven!"

"Cyborg!"

"-borg, borg, borg!"

"Beastboy! Tim! Starfire!"

"eastboy... im... ire..."

Growing increasingly desperate, he continued pressing on through the darkness, following to the hallway.

Salvation came in a somewhat unexpected way- out of the darkness came yet another echo. "obin... bin...bin!"

Robin pricked his ears, listening intently. He knew that voice. "Cyborg!" he called back.

The voice picked up: "Robin! If you can hear me, walk towards me!"

Robin did his best to head towards the voice he could recognize as Cyborg's, pressing through the darkness, until he saw a faint light straight up ahead. Almost overjoyed, he sprinted towards it, and found it to be Cyborg's shoulder light, dancing up ahead.

"Oh, thank goodness," he muttered.

"Come on!" Cyborg said. "Let's get outta here before Raven finds out!"

The two of them turned, and Robin saw the living room only a few feet behind the cybernetic teen. The two stepped out, and the door instantly shut behind them.

"Keys," said the one who shut it, a young green teen.

"Catch, Beastboy," Robin said, tossing them over before collapsing on the couch and beginning to rub his arms for warmth.

"What were you thinking, man?" Cyborg said, looking down at him. "You're lucky green-bean over there wanted a late-night snack and saw the door open, or you might have been in there a while."

"I... wanted answers," Robin muttered. "Couldn't wait..."

"Well, help will be coming soon," Cyborg said. "They called me earlier today- they'll probably be here tomorrow. Just relax, okay?"

"Yeah... fine," Robin muttered. Realizing something, he added, "Don't... don't mention this to Starfire or Raven, okay? It'll just worry Star, and Raven-"

"-would kill you, yeah," Cyborg agreed. "Alright, I won't tell if you don't. You, BB?"

"My lips are sealed," Beastboy nodded. A small smile appearing on his face, he added, "Just like this door, geddit?"

Robin and Cyborg both groaned, and with that, the three of them headed back to their bedrooms. Robin lay in his bed, but, predictably enough, didn't get much sleep for the rest of the night, so he looked and felt his best when he woke up in the morning to greet the people Cyborg had called in for assistance.

_XXXX_

So, this is where the story officially enters its main arc. I felt that the beginning of this chapter was little clunky, mainly because it had to answer the age-old horror question: why not just leave it alone? But I feel it was pretty good, and now we've actually had someone enter the hallway! Next chapter, help arrives in the form of three certain individuals. I won't say who they are, but I will say one has a great affinity for fish, another for bad luck, and the third is the most controversial character on the entire show, bar none. And may or may not be a geomancer. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism and questions welcome, flames will be used to help me think of something I can do with flames, Gamer4 out.


	6. The Arrival

Gamer4 in. Not sure if there's anything to say here.

Disclaimer: Well, I'm getting a little better at Xenosaga...

Chapter VI

The Arrival

The next thing we get to see is one of the favorite clips of the film, in that it gives us a rare glimpse of ordinary life at the _**tower**_. Many have compared it to the eye of the storm, or, alternately, the deep breath before the storm. Indeed, the only notable thing about the scene is how _normal_ everything seems: Cyborg and Beastboy play a video game that we don't see against each other, shouting their usual taunts. Robin and Tim cheer them on, while Starfire watches, a large grin on her face, from nearby. On the other side of the couch, Raven is reading through another book, her eyes occasionally flickering up at the rest of the group, a small smile appearing on her face.

The first interruption to this... serenity (as much as you want to call it that) is when Robin's communicator beeps. He picks it up, and gives a smile at whoever's at the other end. After a brief moment of speech, and a couple seconds of waiting, the doors to the living room slide open and a young man dressed in blue with long black hair stepped in. His eyes were entirely black, but this didn't alarm anyone in the room at the time, as they all knew him fairly well- with, of course, the exception of Tim, but even he had been told about the man and his relation to the Titans.

"Hey, Aqualad!" Cyborg said happily, turning around. "Glad you could come!"

"Glad to pay a visit," Aqualad said, smiling. "You really helped us out back there, just glad to repay the favor."

"Anyone with you?" Cyborg asked, glancing behind him.

"Actually, yes," Aqualad nodded, stepping aside. "You didn't tell me you invited Jinx along, too."

"Well, this place has changed a lot since I was here last," said the new arrival, a young woman with pink hair and wearing a black dress. Her eyes were fixed on the door on the left side of the room.

Robin glanced at Cyborg. "Did you tell any of them that there were more people coming?"

"Forgot to mention it," Cyborg shrugged. Looking back up at the newcomers, he said, "Yeah, believe it or not, that door's the reason I called you all."

"Need some help decorating, or something?" Aqualad asked, a small smile crossing his face. "And here I was, thinking it was something serious."

Robin turned to stare at Cyborg, who was now making an effort to hide his face. "So, long story short, you told them nothing at all."

"That's not- entirely... true," Cyborg said. "The third person actually contacted _me. _She saw that video you and Tim made, said she was curious, wouldn't mind taking a closer look."

"A closer look at what?" Jinx asked, approaching the door. "It just looks like a little closet."

"We'll show you when the third person gets here," Cyborg said, leaning back.

"And who is this 'third person?'" Raven asked, looking up from her book.

Cyborg rubbed the back of his neck. "Now, you see, the thing about that is-"

Jinx laughed. "Apparently, you're all bent on being mysterious today," she said. "You call us up, but won't tell us why, all you do is point at a closet. And now you won't even tell us who the third person is?"

Here, they all abruptly looked up as a noisy line of music played- the _**tower**_'s doorbell.

"Hey, whaddayaknow!" Cyborg said, quickly jumping up. "That must be her!"

With that, he turned and left the room at top speed. The rest of the group only had the time to exchange some bemused looks before he returned, with the third person in tow.

The group's reactions varied. Raven's book dropped to the ground, a look of such intense hostility on her face it was amazing the newest arrival didn't vaporize where she stood. Beastboy, Robin, and Starfire seemed to freeze in place, staring with opened mouths, while Tim looked confusedly from one shocked face to the next. Aqualad seemed relatively confused at the shock as well, while Jinx's face suddenly lit up. "Well... things just got interesting..." she said quietly.

A young woman walked behind Cyborg, with long blond hair, dressed in a black shirt and jeans. Her eyes were light blue, and currently flicking around the room, taking it all in, almost seeming like she was trying not to meet the Titans' eyes.

"...T- Terra..." Beastboy said.

XXXX

A brief summary of the newest arrivals:

Aqualad's story is the shortest. He met up with the Titans while on a case of his own, and had been working closely with them ever since, though he never officially joined up. Later on, he joined a closely related group, the Titans East, who operated in Steel City, rather than Jump. That's about the extent of his story.

Jinx, meanwhile, had actually gotten her start in the HIVE organization, a criminal syndicate operating in Jump City. On more than one occasion, this organization had posed a threat to the city and to the Titans. However, four years ago, the HIVE was crippled when their leader, Brother Blood, was captured. Without a clear leader, they fell into disarray, leaving only a small group of them to form the HIVE Five, which became little more than a group of petty criminals.

Two years later, during the conflict with the Brotherhood of Evil, it was Jinx's ambition to join up with that group, an ambition which came to an end after a struggle between her and Madam Rouge, one of the Brotherhood's top agents. After this, she had severed ties with the HIVE and gone off to assist the Titans behind the scenes, finally showing up in the final battle and dispatching Madam Rouge herself, and earning herself a place with the heroes.

Now... Terra. Unfortunately, her story is the longest and most complex of the new arrivals, so must be compressed even more. But here's the gist of it-

Several years ago, the Titans had found her dispatching a monster on the outskirts of Jump City. Finding that she was largely on her own in the world, they welcomed her into the _**tower**_, and, eventually, offered her a place with the group. However, Robin accidentally divulged her secret at this point- she had very little control over her powers to move the earth. Horrified, she fled, only to return a few months later, having gained much more control. After helping them solve a case against their then-nemesis, Slade, she had been welcomed into the group with open arms, with none of the Titans realizing she'd actually joined up with Slade during her time away.

For a few months after this, she fought the criminals of Jump City alongside the Titans as their friend, all while secretly feeding information to Slade. When she was found out, she fled once more, returning later on as Slade's apprentice, during a time in which she seemingly killed all five of the Titans. However, they returned only a few days later, and made it clear this time that her betrayal wouldn't be forgiven. After being brutally defeated, she fled back to Slade, who began to beat her into the ground for fleeing.

At this point, the Titans reappeared and managed to fight Slade off, but during the confusion of the fight, Terra lost control of her powers once more, and in the chaos that ensued, Slade was seemingly killed (key word: seemingly) by Terra, and Terra herself was turned to stone when she stayed behind to stop an underground volcano from erupting.

Two years before the incidents covered by the film, just after the Titans returned from the fight with the Brotherhood, Beastboy discovered that Terra had been revived, and was doing what she could to blend in to a normal High School. However, disaster struck a year later as Slade returned and attempted to exact his revenge on the young woman. During the ensuing struggle, her powers resurfaced, and after the incident (which also resulted in the death of Slade) (for real this time) she returned to her former life of wandering the world, seeking a place to 'blend in.'

XXXX

Thus, it should come as no surprise that the rest of the Titans were shocked to see her entering their living room once more. Raven stood. "Cyborg," she said, her voice descending to almost a growl, "what were you thinking, calling her back?"

Cyborg recoiled slightly. "Hey, don't look at me! Like I said, she called me! She-"

"I saw that video you put up on Youtube," Terra interrupted. "The Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway. It looked like you guys could use some help, so I thought I'd volunteer."

"Five and a half minutes?" Aqualad asked, looking around in confusion. "Will someone explain to me what's going on here?"

"Good idea!" Cyborg exclaimed, eagerly jumping on the excuse. "Raven, can we have the keys, please? Time to show them why they're here!"

Raven glared at him. "Cyborg, if you think-"

"Can't this wait, Raven- whatever it is?" Tim asked. "I don't know what's going on here, but whatever it is, can't it wait until we've shown them the hallway?"

Raven glared at him, but slowly reached out and handed the keys over to Cyborg, who strode over to the door. Jinx, Aqualad, and Terra stood nearby, Terra seeming somewhat eager, Aqualad confused, and Jinx amused, as each lock clicked open, and Cyborg finally opened the door.

At this point, the smile slid off of Jinx's face, Aqualad looked even more confused than before, and Terra spoke. "So, it _wasn't _an illusion..." Slowly, she reached forward and felt the inside of the hallways. She quickly withdrew her hand. "Well, you weren't kidding," she said, glancing back at Robin. "It _is _cold."

"That's enough," Raven said urgently. "They've seen it, you can close it now."

Cyborg glanced at the others, shrugged, then closed the door and locked it. He handed Raven the keys.

"Thank you," she said. "Now, if you don't mind, I have things to do that _don't _involve traitors." With a pointed glance at Terra, she stormed off out of the room.

For a moment, everyone stared after her. Finally, Starfire rose from her seat. "I will... attempt to calm her down," she said, slowly floating out of the room.

Tim raised his hand. "Uh... yeah, does someone want to explain this to me?" he asked. "No the closet, what's with Raven? I mean, I know she's not that happy at the best of times, but this..."

For a moment, there was an awkward silence, then Jinx said, "Well, that's just fine, but I'd rather get around to planning what to do in there!"

"What, you want to go in?" Aqualad asked, staring at her. "Doesn't exactly look natural."

"Nope," Jinx said, smiling. "And what more do you need?"

Robin gave a brief glance behind him before saying, "Alright, let's get down to business. I've been in there before, and it's even bigger than you're thinking." As he spoke, he headed over to the kitchen, where he grabbed some paper and a pen and began to draw something.

"You mean, deeper than the ten feet?" Terra asked, heading over and taking a seat, watching him draw whatever it was upside down.

"Much deeper," Robin affirmed. "I didn't find the end of it, even." As he drew, Jinx, Aqualad, Tim, Cyborg, and Beastboy gathered around as well.

Finally, when he finished, he turned it around so they could see. It seemed to be a sort of diagram detailing the hallway the best he could remember it, with each curve and corner, finally leading into the gigantic room where he'd finally turned back. The room was only half-drawn, because, as he had said, he'd only gone partway across.

"You're joking, right?" Jinx said, smiling. "This is a joke."

"It's not," Cyborg said. "I had to go in and bail him out."

"This... isn't possible," Aqualad said, bending over the diagram.

"Thanks, we didn't notice that," Tim said, looking up at him in exasperation.

"So, when are we going in?" Jinx asked.

"Well," Robin said, "First we'll need Raven to calm down-"

"That could take weeks," Terra muttered.

For a moment, there was silence, then Robin continued. "First, we need Raven to calm down and give us the keys back, then we'll need to prepare. You'll need some fishing wire or something, if you're going in deep."

"Why's that?" Aqualad asked. "This looks like a straight shot, no forks or anything-"

"I know it _looks _like that," Robin agreed, "but when I was on my way back out, I found a fork or two that wasn't there before- or I didn't notice, or whatever. If you find any forks, you'll need to mark your path- maybe some neon markers, glowsticks, things like that."

"Exactly how long do you expect this to take?" Aqualad asked, staring at him.

"I don't know," Robin admitted.

XXXX

Later on, we see Terra being led to her room by Beastboy. It seems that the arrivals have been invited to stay for a night or more to help with the hallway. Beastboy is speaking. "-kept it good as new," he is saying as the door slides open, revealing a room decorated to simulate sleeping in the great outdoors.

Terra gives a smile of nostalgia as she runs her hand around the walls of the room, and possibly of regret. "You really did keep it perfect..." she said, glancing over at the bed.

"I... kinda had to," Beastboy said, looking down.

"No, you didn't," Terra said, looking at the ground as well. "I didn't deserve-"

"Not that," Beastboy interrupted. "I had to do it for myself. Keeping this place clean- it made me feel like it would be ready for when you came back. That's it- when you came back. Getting rid of it, just leaving it alone- it would be like admitting you were gone forever..."

A tear shed from Terra's eye. Seemingly to change the subject, she asked, "So, it sounds like none of you will be coming in with us?"

"You mean, into the hallway?" Beastboy asked. "Yeah... Raven had an incident in that hallway, turns out that Starfire's claustrophobic-"

"And Robin?" Terra interjected.

"Him?" Beastboy asked. "Starfire won't let him go in there. And you know what they're like- if Starfire wants something, Robin can't say no."

Terra gave a small laugh. "Some things never change," she shrugged.

Beastboy laughed as well, then became solemn again. "Well, there is _one _thing," he said. "The only time I've ever seen him tell her no."

"What's that?" Terra asked.

"Robin's been talking in his sleep lately," Beastboy explained. "Keeps saying someone's name... Emma..."

The effect of this word was incredible. Terra's eyes widened, her face seemed to pale, and outside, the ground seemed to tremble threateningly. Quickly, she shook her head, regaining control, and the quake ceased.

Beastboy stared. "You- you know who she is?" he asked tentatively.

"No!" Terra said, a little too quickly to be believable. Glancing around, she said, "Wow, look at the time! I should get to sleep-"

"It's 4:30," Beastboy said, staring.

"Yeah, but I did a lot of walking today!" Terra said, still speaking rapid-fire. "If you don't mind-"

"Okay...?" Beastboy said, stepping from the room, leaving Terra behind.

On the outside, he looked behind him in astonishment. _What was all that about?_ he wondered. He wasn't an empath, but something told him that the name Emma somehow made Terra uncomfortable. Almost as uncomfortable as it seemed to make Robin. Shaking his head in confusion, he turned and decided to head to Raven's room.

_XXXX_

I wonder if this chapter is controversial... Yeah, once again, sorry not much was actually happening here. Next chapter, the real action begins with Exploration #1! Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism and questions welcome, flames will be used to burn the excess of cardboard I have here, Gamer4 out.


	7. Exploration 1: Across the Anteroom

Gamer4 in. Tut mir leid, aber ich habe heute nichts zu sagen. (Yeah, I'm taking a German class. Decided to throw in a bit more from the book- random languages where they don' t really have any place.)

Disclaimer: ... Muss es sein?

Chapter VII

Exploration #1: Across the Anteroom

Raven awoke early the next morning. It was a moment before she remembered everything that was going on. Then it came to her: that was the day the new arrivals would be making their first trip into the hallway. Sighing, she got to her feet, donned her robe, and picked up the keys. Before leaving the room, however, she headed to a desk that she'd set aside for writing. Without looking down, she picked up a piece of paper and a pen and placed them on the desk, intending to write a letter to her mother, Arella, who still lived in her home... dimension of Azarath. For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the sound of her pen scratching on the paper. Then, there was a noise of confusion, as Raven realized there was another piece of paper under the one she was writing on. Moving her half-finished letter to the side, she stared down at a very crudely-drawn picture.

It is only context within the film that gives this image any meaning whatsoever. In the center of the page is a square of black. It takes up roughly two inches square, and is colored in multiple layers of black, not allowing any of the white page it is drawn on to show through. Around the square, several strange creatures have been drawn, not just octopuses or lizards or even dragons, but strange meshings and clashings- it was hard to tell where one creature ended and another began. But Raven's eyes were drawn to that square of darkness in the center. There seems to be little doubt in her mind about what it represents...

XXXX

The cameras then cut to the kitchen, where we see Tim preparing a cup of coffee for himself. He pours in a generous amount of cream and sugar, and, on tasting it, gives a smile and puts his finger and thumb together in an 'O' shape, though there isn't anyone else there to see it. As we can see out the windows, it's still somewhat dark out. The doors slide open, and Raven enters.

"You're up early," Raven notes, glancing at him as she begins preparing her usual morning tea.

"Yeah, I promised Robin I'd head into the city this morning, pick up some last-minute supplies for the trip," Tim says, taking another sip of his coffee. "You always up this early?"

"Usually," Raven says, but doesn't elaborate.

Tim, perhaps sensing something off in her tone, asks, "Something wrong?"

"I had a strange wake-up call," Raven said, producing a piece of paper. She hands it over to Tim, who gives the image on it a glance.

"You didn't draw this, I'm guessing," he said.

"I'm not very 'artsy,'" Raven said, producing a teabag.

"Well, why would anyone do it?" Tim asked, frowning at the paper. "A prank?"

"Probably Terra," Raven muttered, taking a drink of her tea. "Trying to make me lose control of my emotions again..."

"I'm guessing you two have some sort of history together," Tim said, sitting down across from Raven. A slight smile crossing his face, he added, "Let me guess- she stole your lunch money in Junior High, didn't she?"

"A little more serious than that," Raven said, a slight scowl crossing her face.

"...She didn't steal your actual lunch, did she?" Tim asked.

"No," Raven said, sounding definitely agitated at this point. "The fact is... she betrayed him."

"Him? Him who?" Tim asked confusedly.

Raven jerked her head up. "I didn't say 'him,' I said 'us!'" she said quickly, trying to cover up her verbal stumble. "She betrayed all of us."

Tim raised an eyebrow, but allowed the subject to drop. Shifting topics, his next question is, instead, "Exactly how did she betray you?"

Raven looked down at her tea. "Why don't you ask her yourself?" she muttered. "Get her to face what she did..."

"Maybe I will...?" Tim seemed to be thinking out loud at this point, confused. Shrugging, he downed the rest of his coffee. Standing, he said, "Well, I've gotta run, if I'm going to be back in time for the exploration!"

"Wait," Raven said, abruptly standing. "While you're out, there are a couple things I need. Do you mind picking them up, too?"

"Um... yeah, sure," Tim said, rubbing the back of his head. "What do you need?"

XXXX

One jump-cut later, and Tim reenters the living room with a couple of bags, which he hands to a nearby Raven. "That's the last of it," he said, brushing his hands together. "Now, want to tell me what all this stuff is for?"

"Sure," Raven said, looking gratefully through the bags. "You've heard of feng shui, right?"

"May have heard about it somewhere," Tim says, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's the use of certain items and decorations to channel the flow of energy through a building," Raven explained, picking some items out of the bags. "Of course, it's more complicated than that, but there's your basic summary."

"You're hoping to channel positive energy?" Tim guessed. "To combat... whatever's going on over there?" Here, he indicated the door to the hallway.

"Bingo," Raven said, placing several items on the table. "You know, I'll bet Starfire would be willing to help with this..."

While Raven picks out her feng shui items, Tim begins unpacking the supplies he's bought for the exploration. This includes five miles' worth of fishing line, several neon flares and markers, twenty glowsticks, four two-way radios, and some high-powered flashlights that would, hopefully, be able to illuminate more than the flashlight Robin had used in his disastrous first exploration.

While they are doing this, the others begin to trickle in, yawning and getting their own breakfasts ready. Only Robin seems to truly be awake. "Ah, good to see you got the stuff, Tim!" he said, smiling at the equipment currently laid out in the living room.

"You had doubts?" Tim asked, a slight smirk crossing his face.

XXXX

Shortly after breakfast, it seems, the group is gathered around the entrance to the hallway. Terra is holding one of the reels of fishing wire- the other end is tied off to a pole in the living room. Each of the three going into the hallway has been given one of the radios, with the fourth to be kept by the group remaining behind so that they could stay in contact. In addition, each of the 'explorers' is carrying a camera to record what happens in those dark hallways.

"Alright, good luck everyone!" Tim says jovially, shaking their hands as if they are off to ascend Mount Everest. "You know, this reminds me of a story-" he was interrupted here by Robin giving an impatient cough, "-that will sadly have to wait for another time!" he quickly amended. "Good luck to you all!"

Jinx, Aqualad, and Terra seem to vary from 'off-put' to 'amused' by Tim's antics, but, nonetheless, a few moments later, they turn and take their first steps down the hallway. After about ten feet, they reach the first corner and turn right, and are out of sight.

For a moment, the other Titans wait for something to come in over the radio. Finally, we hear Jinx's voice. "Testing, testing," she says, a slight crackle entering her voice due to the radio. "Can you guys hear us?"

"Loud and clear," Cyborg responds- he's the one who has been chosen to keep contact with the group in the hallway. "What are you seeing down there?"

"So far, it's exactly the same," Aqualad's voice comes in. "Just long, and dark. I don't even know what these walls are _made _of..."

"It's some kind of rock," Terra buzzes in, "but I can't tell exactly what kind... and that's kind of a big deal for me..."

"Why's that such a big deal?" Raven spat in the radio's direction.

"Well," Terra explained, "as a geomancer, I'd like to think I can generally tell rocks apart, but maybe that's just me..."

Raven gave a grunt of frustration. Turning, she addresses Starfire. "Hey, Star, want to help me out with something?"

"Yes, I would like that very much," Starfire agreed. Throughout this whole exchange, she had been watching the hallway with no small amount of apprehension. She sounds extremely glad indeed to have an excuse to be anywhere where that door isn't.

"Great!" Raven said. "Now, let me show you a few books about feng shui..." And with that, the two women leave into the _**tower**_'s main hallway.

A few moments pass. Then the radio comes through again. "Looks like you called it, Robin," Aqualad says. "We haven't seen that big room you described, but we just came to a fork."

"Alright, which way are we going from here?" comes Terra's voice.

"Left," Robin says. "If you're going for that big room, take a left."

Beastboy, seeing that his presence doesn't seem entirely necessary, quietly stands, and says, "If nobody minds, I think I'll go help Raven and Star with whatever they're doing." With nobody speaking up, he follows them out, leaving Robin, Tim, and Cyborg to oversee the exploration.

XXXX

The cameras, strangely enough, choose to follow Beastboy' s story, at least for a brief amount of time, as he finds Raven and Starfire working to put up some of the feng shui items in the hallways. "Hey," he said, "need a hand? I have eight!" Here, he morphed into an octopus, just to demonstrate his point.

Both Raven and Starfire responded at the same time: "No, we're fine on our own," and "Yes, that would be wonderful!" respectively. The two looked at each other slightly awkwardly, then Raven finally said, "Then again, maybe some help wouldn't be too bad."

Beastboy morphed back to a human, smiling. "Glad to help out!" he said. "But... Raven... I need to talk to you."

"What is it?" Raven asked, turning to him.

"It's something that happened yesterday," he said. "I was talking with... you know, with Terra..." he paused here, as if afraid that the name would set Raven off. However, while she closes her eyes in agitation, she doesn't say anything, so he continues, "and I mentioned that name that Robin keeps mentioning. You know, Emma."

"Oh, goody," Raven says sarcastically. "And what did Terra have to say on the subject?"

"Well... she _said _she doesn't know the name, but when I mentioned it, she freaked out, and... well, if you felt that little quake-"

Raven gave a sigh of exasperation. "Yeah, I did wonder what that was about." Rubbing her eyes, she groaned. "You have got to be kidding me! Of all the people who would know about Emma besides Robin, it had to be freaking _Terra!_"

Beastboy looked a little panicked- Raven wasn't prone to outbursts of emotion like this.

Suddenly, Raven froze. "What... is that...?"

Beastboy glanced down at whatever she was looking at. It turned out to be a rolled-up piece of paper sticking out of his pocket. "Umm... I don't know what you're talking about," he said quickly, making to hide it.

"Don't lie to me!" Raven almost screamed. The paper was covered in a sort of black energy and flew out of Beastboy's pocket, into Raven's hand.

"Please, friend Raven, what is so wrong about the paper?" Starfire asked, leaning over.

"I knew it," Raven growled. "I should have known."

Sure enough, on the paper was a picture almost identical to the one she'd found in her room that morning: a small black square (though this one was slightly larger, measuring in at about three inches square) covered in multiple layers of black, with crudely-drawn monsters dancing around it.

"I found a paper just like this in my room this morning," Raven growled at Beastboy. "Want to explain how a paper just like this found its way into _my room?!_"

"I didn't go in there, I swear!" Beastboy says immediately, raising his hands in surrender. "I found that in my room this morning! I was going to show it to you guys, to see what you thought of it!"

Raven was still furious, but she could tell he wasn't lying. Silently, she handed the paper back to him. "So," she said, "someone's making this drawing and putting it in our rooms..." Turning, she said, "Starfire, did you get a picture like this in your room?"

Starfire shook her head. "I have no papers in my room that I am aware of," she said.

Raven turned back to Beastboy. Sighing, she said, "This can wait. You still want to help?"

"Yes," Beastboy said, glad that she was calm again.

"Good," she said. "Now, the thing about feng shui..."

XXXX

The film then takes us back to the living room, showing us the Titans perspective as the explorers penetrate deeper into the hallway. It seems they have finally reached the large room where Robin's previous trip ended. From descriptions over the radio, we hear that they have discovered all the walls of the room, and, using the high-powered flashlights Tim procured, they have even discovered a ceiling to the vast chamber, arching roughly fifty feet over their heads.

"This place is definitely bigger than we bargained for," Aqualad says over the radio. "We've found another hallway on the opposite end of this... room."

"Antechamber," comes Jinx's voice.

"What?" Aqualad responds, confused.

"I think this is just the antechamber- you know, the entrance hall," Jinx explains.

A moment of silence, and Aqualad says, "Yeah, what she said."

Here, Terra chimes in. "We're starting to hear that growling you told us about. But we can't see anything. If there's something here, it's not in this room."

"Wait, I have an idea!" Tim said, leaning forward. "You say you don't know what kind of rock these walls are?"

"I think I said that, yeah," Terra responds.

"Can't you break off a bit of the walls, or the floor, or something? Carry some pieces back, and maybe we can test them to figure out what this place is made of. I don't know how much it would help, but..."

"Well, I can't see how it would make things more confusing," Aqualad says. "Think you can break off a bit from the wall, Terra?"

"Yeah, I'm fairly certain," Terra agrees.

A moment passes.

"Hm... that's interesting," comes Jinx's voice, sounding somewhat amused.

"What is it?" Robin asks, leaning in closer.

Terra's voice comes back, sounding shocked. "My... powers. They don't work in here."

"What?" Robin asked. "Your-"

"My powers, yeah," Terra repeated. "I know these walls are made of rock, but I can't shift them."

Jinx's voice came in. "My powers aren't working in here either. It's like this place is a dead-zone for powers."

"You coming back?" Robin asks.

"No, we're going to try to find the end," Jinx affirms.

"What about you, Terra? Aqualad?"

"Makes no difference to me," Aqualad says with a shrug.

"I... well, I wasn't really planning on using them anyways..." Terra says.

A few more minutes pass before anything else happens. It seems that the explorers have entered the hallway at the other end of the chamber. For a while, they have nothing else to report, until there's a sudden, unanimous gasp between the three of them.

"What? What is it? What do you see?" Robin asks eagerly.

"It's another room," comes Jinx's voice. "But it's bigger... much, much bigger. We can't make out any of the walls, and we can _just _make out the ceiling... that must be..."

"It's like it's almost 200 feet!" Comes Terra's astonished voice. "I don't think we'll be able to cover this..."

One silence later, Jinx finally says, "Alright, we're coming back. I don't think we have enough fishing line to last us much further."

For the next couple hours or so, they seem to be making their way back. All we hear in addition is an occasional exclamation, as the group notes that it seems that the hallways have, indeed, shifted around since they went through it last. Thankfully, however, none of this shifting has split the fishing wire they'd been laying out behind them, and they finally turn around the corridor, appearing at the end of the 10 foot long hallway.

"It... is... freezing in there," Aqualad says, eagerly stepping out of the darkness of the hallway and into the living room's warmth. Terra follows with equal apparent eagerness, while Jinx throws one last longing look at the hallway as Tim, in accordance with Raven's instructions, stands up and locks the door securely behind them.

"Did you keep the cameras running?" Cyborg asked.

"Sure did," Terra nodded, producing her camera for the metal man. Aqualad and Jinx followed suit.

Quickly, they plug the cameras into the television and review all the footage, which seems to follow everything that the group back in the living room heard over the radio.

"This... this is unreal," Cyborg says, staring at the footage.

"How many times are we going to make _that _observation?" Tim asks, though he himself is clearly stunned by just how far the hallway seems to extend.

"So, the question now, is, 'Are we going to do another exploration,'" Robin commented.

"I'd be willing to go in again," Jinx immediately states. "I want to find the end of that place."

Terra and Aqualad are a little slower in agreeing, but eventually, they, too, agree to make another trip.

"In that case," Tim said, standing up, "I should head out and pick up some more equipment. Don't want you running out halfway through."

As he stands up, something seems to occur to him. "Hey, I never finished my story!" he said.

Several of the people in the room sighed, but Robin finally said, "Alright, go ahead, what is it?"

Tim smiled. "It's this party that I was at before I came here. The host was fairly wealthy, so... well, long story short, I was gatecrashing. Anyways, the host had this great, big pool with sharks swimming around it in his backyard. As I was sneaking in, he gave a speech to his guests, saying that he would give anyone who could swim across the pool whatever they wanted. Of course, nobody took him up on this.

"An hour or so later, everyone was back to dancing or talking, when everybody heard a splash. They turned and saw this woman in the water, swimming across it for her life! Everyone rushed to the pool to watch, as she kicked at the water harder and harder, until she finally got out at the other end.

"Well, the host hadn't expected anyone to actually do it, but he was a good sport. He approached her, gave her a towel, and said, 'I am a man of my word. You can take whatever you want.'

"And she responded, 'Well, you can start with the name of the jerk who pushed me in!'"

And with one last smile, Tim swept out the doors.

_XXXX_

To tell the truth, I wasn't entirely sure how to end this chapter. Anyways, things are picking up! Next time, Exploration #2, The Great Hall! Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism and questions welcome, flames will be used to build a bonfire (building an actual bonfire is on my bucket list,) Gamer4 out.


	8. Exploration 2: The Great Hall

Gamer4 in. Another chapter, another way for me to say I have nothing to say.

Disclaimer: So much time wasted writing disclaimers, when I could be playing Xenosaga...

Chapter VIII

Exploration #2: The Great Hall

Next up on the film is an amusing distraction where we see Tim entering a hardware store and requesting another several miles' worth of fishing line.

"Weren't you in here this morning?" the person he places the order with asks.

"Sure was," Tim agrees. "Turns out, that fishing wire wasn't enough. I've got some friends going... spelunking."

"Spelunking?" the man asks, looking up in surprise. "Are there any caves around here?"

"Well, it's not _technically _a cave, but I really like saying 'spelunking,'" Tim says. "Such a great word. No, it's actually for help exploring a gigantic, black hallway that randomly appeared in my brother's living room. It goes on for miles, and we _still _haven't found the end."

The man stared at Tim for a moment before sighing and saying, "Yeah, sure, why not. Now, if you'll just sign here, and here..."

XXXX

Later, as he returns to the _**tower**_, Tim approaches the rest of the group, who are sitting around a table in the kitchen, planning the next exploration. "Well, how's this for a fallacy?" he says as he approaches the group. Suddenly, he notices someone is missing. "Hold on, where's Raven?"

"Friend Raven has confined herself to her room," Starfire says solemnly. "She said she is writing a letter."

"What's this fallacy you're talking about?" Jinx asks, glancing up at him.

Tim, glancing at the doors to the _**tower**_'s main hallway, turns back to the group, and says, "Oh, yeah. Well, I figured that, if you were going in there again, with how big that place is turning out to be, you might want one of these." Smiling, he produced a compass from one of the bags he has brought in.

"You only thought of this _now?_" Terra asks in astonishment.

Tim shrugs. "Like I said, it was a fallacy."

"What else did you get?" Robin asks.

"Well, let's see here," Tim says, diving into the bags. "Ten miles of fishing line, twenty neon flares and markers, fifty glowsticks, a hammer and chisel for cutting out bits of the wall, more batteries for those high-powered flashlights, and a partridge in a pear tree."

Robin stared for a moment before sighing and shrugging. "Well, we can't say you aren't prepared."

"Just thinking about the future," Tim winks. Looking more solemn, he adds, "For once."

Terra looks up at him, an eyebrow raised, but doesn't press the point. Not now. A possible reason for this being that Raven chooses this moment to burst into the room, furiously marching up to Terra, and pointing directly at her.

"I told you to stay out of my room, Terra!" she rages.

"I haven't been in your room!" Terra retorts, leaning back slightly. "I'm seeing enough darkness and depression in that hallway over there, thank you very much!"

"What's wrong, Raven?" Beastboy asks, doing what he can to attempt to calm her down.

"_This _is what's wrong!" Raven shouts, producing a handful of pages. She tosses them down onto the table. Everyone leans forward for a closer look.

More drawings. Each one has the same theme- the same black square in the center, with incomprehensible monsters doodled around the edges. The only major difference from picture to picture is that in each one, the black square in the middle seems to be growing larger and larger, from roughly two inches square in the original, to the whole page except for the margins by the last one.

"As much as I love pranks," Raven snarled, "I draw the line at this."

"I agree," Terra says, leaning forward. "Those monsters look like they were drawn by a five year old."

"Why are you leaving them in my room?!" Raven shouts.

"Your theory is brilliant," Terra says, looking up, "except for one minor problem: _I didn't draw these._"

"Prove it!"

Terra sighs. "I just got here yesterday. Before that, I was traveling from city to city on foot, and if I had this much paper, I probably would have had a better use for it than trying to prank you," she points out. "Besides, I just found out about your little... 'incident' yesterday. Sounds tragic, by the way, I was filled with sorrow that I wasn't there to see it myself." By this point, both of the two have risen, and sparks seem to be flying between them.

"Calm down, you two!" Robin shouts.

"Yes, please do!" Starfire chimes in, looking frightened and what she's witnessing. "Can we not all be friends?"

Unable to resist Starfire's pleading eyes, the two sit down, though the looks they throw each other still greatly resemble the looks of two women who are never, ever going to be friends.

"We have a much bigger problem on our hands right now," Robin says. "We can't afford to be fighting with each other. I know you two have some bad blood, but for now, the past needs to stay in the past. I won't ask you two to always be friendly with each other- but for now, can you at least call a temporary truce? Shake hands on it?"

Raven and Terra glanced at each other, and slowly, they reached over the table and shook hands. They both grasped much harder than one would imagine was necessary, and let go almost unnaturally quickly.

"Thank you," Robin says, leaning back. "Now, what we have to decide is-"

"Hold on, we still have a problem," Raven says, tapping the papers on the table. "Somebody's been in my room. And Beastboy's, too."

Everyone turned to stare at Beastboy, who scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I found a couple of those drawings, too," he admits. "Couldn't tell you where they're coming from..."

There is an awkward silence in the group, but Robin finally says, "Right now, the hallway is the bigger issue. I don't want to blame anyone, but whoever _is _doing it, please stop. We need to focus on the problem at hand."

"I think I've got a problem," Aqualad puts in. Everyone turns to him. He places the compass on the table in front of them. It doesn't take long for them all to see what he means: the compass is spinning around in wild circles, never indicating the same north for more than a millisecond.

"That's odd," Tim says, picking it up. "I could have sworn it was working earlier today..."

Robin glances up and out of the window. "It's getting late," he notes. "The store will close before you can get out there. It looks like it's going to be a long day tomorrow, so let's call it for the night."

There is some muttering of agreement, and one by one, everyone rises and begins filing out of the room.

In the end, the only two remaining, one clearing up papers, the other simply watching, were Tim and Terra. Terra is watching Tim closely, a certain amount of concern in her eyes. "What did you mean, 'for once,'?" she asks.

"Sorry?" Tim asks, looking up from where he's clearing everything up.

"Earlier, you said you're planning for the future, 'for once.' What did you mean by that?"

"Well, let's just say that I wasn't always that big on foresight," Tim says, looking slightly embarrassed. "Something that always irritated Robin, I can tell you. He was Mr. Foresight five years running. Had his whole life planned out before he finished Preschool. I didn't even have a job picked out until a few months after I graduated from high school."

"Is that why you stopped talking?" Terra asks.

"How did you know we haven't talked for a while?" Tim asks, looking surprised.

"Because you didn't know me," she says, looking somber. "I'm fairly certain he'd have mentioned me before if you were close."

"Why? What did you do?" Tim asks. "I asked Raven, but she just said something about betraying 'him,' then she changed that to 'us.' Any idea what she meant?"

"She meant what she said," Terra says, looking away. "I betrayed them all."

Tim stared at her. "Care to... expound on that at all?"

Terra turned back to him. "Your story first."

Tim laughed. "Well, you know how to bargain. Well, there's not much to tell, really. Nasty High School years, due to my complete inability to look ahead, fell into drinking a lot, smoking a few cigs if the mood ever struck- got in with the wrong people, next thing I knew, I was the only guy in a group about to rob a gas station who had misgivings. And you know what happens when you're the only one in a group like that who has misgivings..."

"Nothing good, I'd imagine," Terra nods.

"Yeah," Tim says, scratching the back of his head. "Long story short, they probably would have killed me if Robin hadn't shown up. He was always the martial artist, going from one school to another. He saw them beating me up, didn't even hesitate. Probably five against one, and they had weapons, and he still took them all down.

"He wasn't impressed, of course, when he realized what had been going on. We started talking less, and by the time he came out here, we weren't talking at all, until he calls me up a few weeks ago to say he needs my help. In a way," here he sighs, "I suppose I should be grateful this all happened. Finally had a chance to make up with my brother." Taking a deep breath, he asked, "So, want to finally tell me your story?"

Terra looks down. Tim smiles. "Hey, like Robin said, the past is in the past. He seems to trust you, and he trusts you, so do I, whatever your story is."

Terra looked up, and then began to speak. She told him her whole story. Refreshingly, she makes no effort to paint herself in a positive light. In fact, she details herself as such a cruel traitor that in later video logs, Tim would admit that he wondered if she'd actually adjusted details of the story to make her seem even worse than she was.

"And one day... well, I don't even know what happened, but I woke up. I wasn't stone anymore," she says as she finally begins to draw her story to a close. "For a while, I think my powers were dormant, or something... I couldn't make rock move anymore. I tried going to school, having a regular life, but then... well, long story short, my powers woke up again, Slade came back, and... things happened," she ended somewhat awkwardly.

"Things do that," Tim noted. "But... Robin told me Slade is dead."

"He is," Terra agrees. "We made sure this time. He's not coming back. But he put up a big fight before he died. Demons never go quietly, I suppose..."

Tim, hearing a scratching noise, looks down and sees Terra absentmindedly writing on a piece of paper. Peering at it, he reads out, "E...M...M...A. Who's Emma?"

"What?!" Terra jumps, looking down at what she's written. "Oh, nobody!" she says, once more unconvincingly, as she crumples up the paper and crams it in her pocket, though not before Tim reads the other note on the paper, right above the name.

"Are you sure?" Tim asks skeptically. "Robin's apparently been saying that name in his sleep lately..."

Terra sighs. "Sorry, but sometimes, the past is past for a reason. It doesn't need to be brought up again. Night, Tim."

"Oh, night!" Tim says, looking somewhat disarmed as Terra stands and heads out the door, leaving him to ponder the meaning of that other phrase on the paper:

_It's okay. You can go now._

XXXX

The film then cuts to the group standing once more outside of the hallway. Tim is proudly presenting Jinx (who is rolling her eyes) with a new compass. "Brand new, right off the shelves, tested it in the store myself!" he says cheerfully.

"Thank you," she responds, taking the device.

Terra has the hammer and chisel in her hands, ready to take some samples from the walls. Cyborg is sitting next to the radio. Slowly, and quite clearly reluctantly, Raven moves forward and unlocks the door herself. Jinx rushes in eagerly, like a kid at an amusement park. Aqualad and Terra move a little slower. Terra stops a few feet in to chisel out part of the wall and place it in a tube. A moment later, the three explorers step around the corner and are gone.

Raven mutters something about not being quite finished with her feng shui, and leaves into the main hallway. Starfire and Beastboy, after a moment's hesitation, follow.

Another moment later, the radio crackles into life. "Testing, testing," Jinx's voice says. "Can you hear me?"

"The radios are working just fine," Cyborg acknowledges. "Where are you?"

"Still in the first hallways," Jinx replies. "Doesn't look like the layout's changed since last time."

"Well, that's good," Tim notes.

Robin wordlessly sits on the couch, agitatedly jerking his knee every couple seconds. Looking over, Tim smiles, and heads over to sit next to his brother, leaving Cyborg to handle communications.

"Feeling a little restless, are we?"

"It really should be me going down there," Robin says. "It is _our __**tower**_, after all."

"So why don't you go?"

"I promised Starfire and Raven I wouldn't," Robin says. "And I wouldn't go back on a promise to either of them."

Tim shrugs. "Don't know what you're complaining about, myself. Personally, I wouldn't go in there if you paid me."

Robin sighs. "Easy for you to say. You've always been content with not doing anything." For a moment, he is silent, then he shakes his head. "Sorry. That was a horrible thing to say."

Tim laughs. "Robin, you're my brother. A little slip of the tongue isn't going to make all that angry- this isn't reality t.v., after all." Looking more solemn, he added, "Besides, it's true. You've always been the 'achiever.' You have to go out and succeed, and I'm happy if I can go home at the end of the day and watch a movie with my feet on the table and a cold drink in my hand."

"What kind of drinks?" Robin asks, looking up suspiciously.

"Oh, don't worry," Tim says, smiling again. "I haven't touched any booze for two years now. Strict prohibition for me!"

"Good to hear," Robin says, putting his head down in his hands. "The truth is... I really am glad you're here."

Tim laughs again. "Feels like we just had this conversation, not that long ago."

Meanwhile, Cyborg is continuing to handle the radio. As Robin and Tim return, Jinx calls in to report that they've reached the Anteroom with relatively little trouble. It took a little longer than they expected, but that was mainly due to the need to collect periodic wall samples. Inside the Anteroom, they took a couple more, then headed straight across, not bothering to look around, simply looking for the hallway at the other end.

Time passes, and eventually, Jinx crackles in with some startling news. "Tim, you're sure this is a _new _compass, right?"

"100%," Tim nods, somewhat pointlessly, given their method of communication. "Why?"

"Because this one is spinning around, too," Jinx reports. "I just looked down at it, and it's spinning like a top."

"What?" Tim asks, his eyebrows raised. "That's strange... I know it was working yesterday..."

"Here's the Great Hall," came Aqualad's voice.

"Wow," comes Terra. "Forgot how... _big_ this place is."

Tim glanced over at Robin, and stifles a laugh at the look of sheer frustration on his face.

"It might be a while before we find anything in here," Aqualad agrees. "Good thing we have the fishing line..."

Minutes pass. Time seems to extend as the small group around the radio awaits another report, but it seems that nothing of note has yet happened- the most notable thing that happens is the group noting when they've used a glowstick or flares.

Half an hour passes, and still no news of any walls or new hallways.

Finally, half an hour later, a gasp comes in from the radio.

"What is it?" Robin asks eagerly. "Did you find a wall?"

"No..." comes Terra's voice. She sounds very odd. "There are... stairs here. It's a staircase."

The Titans back in the living room freeze, allowing the implications of what the explorers are saying to wash over them. "There are... multiple floors..." Robin says, shock in his eyes.

"Just when I thought this place couldn't get any bigger..." Tim says, staring down the hallway.

"It's a spiral staircase," notes Aqualad. "It's twisting down, and down, and down. It looks like it gets wider each step. We can't see a bottom from here."

"Move aside," comes Jinx's voice. There's a crack and a shaking noise, and the Titans deduce that she's broken a glowstick. A couple minutes later, Jinx speaks up once more. "Wow. Never heard an impact."

Robin almost chokes. "How... how far down can it go?" he asks.

"Well," Jinx says, and we can almost imagine the light in her eyes, "we're about to find out! Come on, you two!"

"Are you sure?" comes Aqualad's voice. "Maybe this isn't such a-"

"Of course I'm sure!" Jinx's voice says.

Another half hour passes. Aqualad's voice comes in. "The stairs are definitely getting wider. I can't even see the other rail anym-"

At this point, the radio suddenly cuts out, going to static.

"Aqualad?" Cyborg says, twiddling with the buttons and dials. "Can you hear me? Jinx? Terra?"

A moment later, their voices come back in. "-was that?" That's Terra's voice.

"It sounds like you're getting out of signal range," Cyborg says, looking dumbfounded. "Maybe you should come back."

"Are you kidding? After finding this?" Jinx says.

"I don't know," Aqualad says. "He may be right. I mean, we didn't exactly come prepared for a long stay here. We don't even know how much further down this staircase goes."

Another moment of silence, another cracking and shaking sound. A couple of minutes later, Jinx comes back in, sounding defeated. "Alright, let's go back."

"Are you serious?" Cyborg asks, his eyes wide. "You _still _can't hear it hit the ground?"

"Very serious," Terra says.

About an hour later, Jinx, Aqualad, and Terra round the corner, reentering the living room once more.

"I'm thinking we're going to have to start bringing food in there," Terra sighs, leaning back on the couch.

"And an electric blanket," Aqualad sighs, sitting down next to her. "I took a thermometer- the temperature changes, but it's always within 8 degrees of freezing."

"Did you hear the growl?" Robin asks.

"Oh, yeah, the growling started halfway across the Anteroom," Terra says. "Oh, and here are your wall samples," she adds, dropping a bag of tubes on the table in front of them.

"But whatever it is, it still won't appear," Jinx adds, sounding extremely agitated. "I'm sure we could deal with it if it would just _show itself_..."

"Or maybe it's better off where it is," Tim suggests.

And with that vaguely ominous pronouncement, that tape ends.

XXXX

What follows is yet another section of the film much discussed in certain circles. It is a fairly brief clip, containing only a couple lines of monologue. We see Raven waking up in the middle of the night- though that's not entirely accurate. The clock on her bedside table shows that it is closer to 3:00 AM- the soul's midnight.

At any rate, for reasons she explains later, she rises from her bed, picking up a flashlight, a camera, and the keys to the hallway. Without even turning on her lights, she floats to the door and leaves her room.

The next shot shows her entering the living room. She approaches the hallway's door, and quietly unlocks it. For a moment, she stands, her flashlight pointed into the depths. "I don't know what you are," she mutters quietly. "But I'm here to show you I'm not scared of you."

The hallway remains passive, simply there.

Raven takes a deep breath, placing one hand over her heart, and, not unlike someone skydiving for the first time, reaches out a foot and steps into the darkened passage.

For a moment, she is still. She looks around, as though half-expecting something bad to happen. Nothing does. Unlike before, she doesn't suffer an attack of hysteria. However, unlike Robin before her, she doesn't seem eager to penetrate deeply into the place- simply to prove that she can enter it. Having done so, she steps out and locks it up once more.

This segment has often been compared to the earlier segment showing Beastboy's inability to enter the hallway, though thankfully, unlike that clip, this actually shows importance later in the film- though the clip doesn't end here.

Raven quietly floats back down the halls to her room, where she quietly turns on the light as she enters. Looking at the interior, she gasps, and drops the flashlight, which shatters on the floor.

_XXXX_

You know, I've heard many authors say that they allow the characters to write the story, and that they're just as much observers as the readers. And I never knew what that meant until now- I didn't see half the things in this chapter coming.

Sorry if it seems I'm leaning the whole 'Raven-Terra' rivalry too far in one's favor. I'm not trying, necessarily, to make either of them look bad, but I think it's an accurate representation of what a rivalry is like. Having been in a few myself, (though, of course, we didn't have super powers,) I can honestly say that when you walk out of an argument with your rival, neither of you tends to walk away looking good.

Anyways, next chapter, you guessed it, we return to the hallway with Exploration #3: Down the Spiral Staircase! In the meantime, please R&amp;R, constructive criticism and questions welcome, flames will be used later in the story, Gamer4 out.


	9. Exploration 3: The Spiral Staircase

Gamer4 in. Vielleicht ich soll etwas sagen. ... Nein...

Disclaimer: Was ist die Deutsch Wort fur 'Disclaimer?'

Kapitel IX

Exploration #3: Down the Spiral Staircase

The next morning finds the group gathering in the kitchen. Robin, Tim, and the explorers are all drinking coffee. They all look around as the door opens and Raven floats in. She looks extremely haggard, and hardly even looks at the others as she floats to her usual place in the kitchen and begins preparing tea.

"Something wrong, Rae?" Beastboy asks, sounding concerned.

"...My name's Raven, not Rae," Raven says, hardly paying any attention. She pours herself some tea, and takes a large drink. Looking around, she reaches into her robes and produces the keys. "I know you're going to ask eventually," she says. "Just take them today. Have your exploration. I'll be in my room."

The other Titans stare at her, a certain amount of concern in their eyes. Seemingly oblivious, she finishes her tea and gets up, floating out of the kitchen and into the main hallway.

The others stare at each other in bewilderment. "Did she seem... off, to you?" Tim asked.

XXXX

Later on, the time for the third exploration has arrived, and Raven still has yet to appear. Tim has apparently returned to the store and obtained even _more _fishing wire, and it seems he has begun to buy flares, markers, and glowsticks by the case.

"Good thing we have enough money to go around," he comments drily. "The guy in the store nearly had a heart attack when he saw me coming in _again._"

"What did you tell him?" Beastboy asks.

"I told him exactly what's going on," Tim smiles. "Nothing steers people away from things like this like just telling them exactly what's going on."

"I have, indeed, found that to be true," Starfire nods. A few strange looks are exchanged, but nobody comments.

At this point, lunches are given to each of the people ready to plunge into the hallway, ensuring that this will be a longer stay than those that have come before. "Remember," Cyborg says as Beastboy unlocks the hallway, "your goal is just to find the bottom of the staircase. Once you've done that, come on back, okay?"

"Roger that," Jinx smiles. "Get to the bottom, come on back. Easy."

"I think we got enough wall samples from the last exploration to deal with," Robin adds, "so you should be good to head right to the staircase. Good luck, you three."

Never before has the phrase 'good luck' been applied to going down a hallway with such seriousness. Indeed, despite the ridiculousness of the situation on the surface, it is with perfectly solemn faces that Terra and Aqualad turn to reenter the hallway. Jinx, on the other hand, enters as eagerly as ever. A few seconds later, they are gone.

Initially, everyone crowds around the radio, eager to hear anything that might transpire.

About half an hour later, Terra chimes in. "I think the walls have shifted around a bit," she announces. "Took us longer than before to find the anteroom." In the background, a noise started up. "And... there's the old, familiar growling," Terra mutters. "Hallway, sweet hallway."

Another hour or so passes. Finally, Aqualad comes in over the radio to announce, "We've found the staircase. Jinx has already started down. We'll probably be losing contact soon."

Half an hour later, Jinx comes in. "Alright, this is about where we lost-" The rest of her sentence is lost to static.

The other Titans turn to look at each other. "So... what now?" Tim asks.

It slowly seems to occur to the others that the only one who really needs to stay is Cyborg, to wait for the explorers to come in again. Beastboy looks up. "You know... Raven seemed kind of... upset earlier," he says.

"I think she's been acting kind of weird in general lately," Tim comments. "When I asked her what her beef with Terra is, she seemed kind of confused- she said it was because she betrayed you, but only after she said she betrayed 'him.'" He looked around at everyone, noticing that tension seemed to have risen at his mention of the old scandal. "Probably not a great thing to bring up," he acknowledges, rubbing the back of his head, "but does anyone know what she meant by 'him?'"

Beastboy stands. "I think I'll go and see if I can talk with her."

He stands, and heads out the door into the hallway. Starfire stands, as if to go after him, but Robin turns, raising his hand. "Star... don't. I think he has to do this alone."

Tim, looking bewilderedly around, asks, "...Did I say something?"

XXXX

The footage then cuts to Beastboy approaching Raven's door. Somewhat nervously, he reaches out and gives the door a rap.

There is no response.

"R... Raven?" he gently calls out. "I noticed it looked like there was something wrong at breakfast... want to talk?"

Still no answer.

"Jinx, Terra, and Aqualad are all in the hallway," he announced.

No response.

"Raven?" he asks, pressing his ear to the door. "Are you even in there?"

He stops as he hears a noise. It is a low, rapid-fire muttering. "I see it... I see it all... the entire universe, compressed to a drop of water on the rapidly spinning cycle of eternity, going around, and around, and around, breaking into a thousand stars, each one burning like a fire on the mountain- the highest mountains, but who is seeing the light? Where are they? But mother... you saw the light, didn't you? It called to you, summoned you, hurt you, tortured you... oh, Zampano, who did you lose?"

Beastboy had heard enough. "Raven!" he cries. "I'm coming in!" He rushes at the door, which slides open, forcing him to skid to a stop in the room itself, whereupon his jaw drops as he looks around.

Every inch of the wall is covered in drawings. They are all near-identical to the ones appearing in his room, and the ones that Raven showed them the previous day, but in each successive drawing, the black square in the center grows larger, and larger, until several of them were entirely black, covered with several layers of the color, ensuring that not a speck of the white paper beneath could penetrate the darkness. In the center of all this, in some mockery of her typical lotus position, was Raven, sitting on her bed, rapidly running a marker across another page, covering it in still more darkness.

"Raven!" he cries. "Raven! Can you hear me? Raven? RAAAVEN!"

Raven throws the marker across the room, snapping up to look at him. Her eyes are wild, filled with some form of primal fear. "And so it appears, what is this I see before me? Ah, it is a dagger, isn't it?" She reaches out, grasping at nothing, trying to grab something that isn't there. "Dehors! Dehors vous bougie! Votre vie est celle d'un idiot, se pavanant autour de la sce`ne! Nous allons biento^t entendu pas plus!"*

Beastboy stared at his friend in shock. He didn't even know what _language _that was! "Raven!" he cries, reaching forward. "This isn't you! Wake up!"

At this point, he actually touched Raven, who collapsed on her bed, unconscious once more.

Beastboy stared awkwardly around, as if hoping that there would be some answer in the room, but it offered only those images. And honestly, the images didn't scare him half as much as two other details. The first, of course, being Raven's breakdown. The other being that Raven's new room design was eerily familiar...

He had awoken to his room being papered in exactly the same fashion.

XXXX

When the camera returns to normal, we see that several hours have passed. Six and a half, to be exact. Cyborg is still sitting expectantly next to the radio, looking at it as though expecting it at any moment to come to life and finally explain that dark intrusion on their home. Behind him, Tim is sitting on the couch, taking a drink of something that we don't see on camera. Robin is pacing restlessly around the room. "How long are they going to be down there?" he asks out loud, throwing a glare at the hallway as he passed.

Cyborg shrugs. "Who knows how deep that staircase goes," he says. "You heard Jinx... she's planning on going until she finds the bottom. I doubt Terra and Aqualad would leave her."

"I hope they are okay," Starfire says, sitting on the couch, on the opposite end from Tim. "We brought them here, after all..."

Tim sets down his drink. "Anyone seen Beastboy and Raven lately?" he asks.

"No," Robin says, abruptly stopping his pacing. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Raven since breakfast."

"Nor have I," Starfire agrees. "And I believe the last time Beastboy was in this room was when the others entered the hallway..."

Tim stands. "Well, I'll go see if I can find them," he says. "I'm sure it's nothing serious." With this, he heads out of the room and heads down the hallway. His first instinct is to head down to Raven's room- almost certainly where Beastboy would have gone first.

The door slid open as he approached it. "Whoah," he says at the sight.

Everything is nearly the same as when we left the room 6 and a half hours earlier. Beastboy has pulled up a chair, and is watching Raven laying across her bed, seemingly still unconscious.

"Something happen in here?" Tim asks, stepping forward.

"When I came in here, she was... rambling about something," Beastboy says quietly. "She passed out when I touched her, and I've just been... waiting for her to wake up."

"You didn't think to let us know?" Tim says, looking at him in surprise. "I would place this under the heading of 'somewhat serious,' you know."

"She's not levitating," Beastboy said simply. "If it was serious enough for us to take her to the med lab, she'd be levitating a couple inches off the bed, doing a bit of healing of her own."

Tim opens his mouth, quite possibly to argue the point, but at that moment, Raven's eyes slowly open. With a groan, she raises her head once more. Looking around, she says, "Wh- what are you two doing in here?"

"You looked so bad this morning at breakfast that I thought I'd come in and check up on you," Beastboy explained. "When I came in, you were muttering... random things, and when you saw me, you started shouting in... I don't know, French or something, then when I touched you, you just kind of... fell over."

Raven shakes her head. "I don't remember... why don't I remember?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" Tim offers helpfully.

"I remember going out for breakfast... I didn't want to tell any of you about finding these last night..." here, she motions with a hand at the new wallpaper, "... then I came back here, and... I don't know..."

"Yeah, about the new decor..." Tim says. "I don't suppose you've figured out who's doing it?"

Raven shakily looks up. "..._I'm _doing it."

Tim and Beastboy stare at her. "Say what."

"I don't know why I didn't think to check before," Raven explains. "All I had to do was check the security cameras. And they showed me... in the middle of the night, I woke up, headed over to my desk, pulled out markers, and started drawing. I put up all these... things," she concludes, looking with distaste at all the pictures.

Beastboy leans in. "Did you put up the ones in my room, too?"

"No..." Raven says, looking down. "No, I don't think so. At least, I never left my room."

"I'll go check the security," Tim says immediately, and he jumps up and leaves the room, leaving Raven and Beastboy alone.

For a moment, they looked awkwardly at the ground. Finally, Beastboy spoke. "Guess I'm not really... keeping my end of the bargain, huh?"

"What?" Raven asks, looking at him in confusion.

"I promised... if you came on vacation with us... I'd leave you alone," Beastboy says.

Raven looks away. "No," she says. "It's okay. You can stay. I don't want to be alone."

Beastboy gives a weak smile. "You never are," he says. The smile disappearing, he adds, "Though... there is another reason I came in to find you..."

"What is it?" Raven asks, looking up.

"Tim said something earlier. He said you told him that you were angry with Terra for betraying... 'him.' Who's 'him?'"

Raven stares at him in exasperation. "Azar, you really are an idiot, aren't you?" she says. "Isn't it obvious? 'Him' is _you._"

"Me?" Beastboy says, looking surprised. "But I thought-"

"Don't go reading more into this than there is," Raven quickly says. "It's not like that. The thing is... I know what it's like to be betrayed. If you remember..."

Beastboy looked down, saddened. He remembered all to well the incident in which Raven had made contact with a sentient book... well, a person living inside a book. Malchior- the man who'd put Raven's heart in a blender and hit 'frappe.'

"He used me to achieve his own ends," Raven recalls. "And, as far as I'm concerned, Terra did the same to you. I could never forgive Malchior for what he did to me, and I'd never forgive anyone who did the same to anyone else."

Beastboy smiled. "It's good to know you care... But Terra isn't like that anymore. She's changed."

"Can you know?" Raven asks, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, she did such a great act before... can you really know for sure she's reformed?"

Beastboy seems to think on this for a second. Then he says, "I just know."

Raven seems ready to argue the point some more, but at that point, Tim returns. "Oh," he says, looking at them. "Am I... interrupting something?"

"No, nothing," Raven says, raising her hood. Beastboy rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment, an act mimicked by Tim.

"Well, I checked the security cameras for Beastboy's room," he says. "Three guesses what I found. The first two don't count."

Beastboy stares up in astonishment. "You mean... I drew a bunch of these, too?" he asks, looking at the drawings.

"Right in one," Tim nods. "Now, like I said to Robin, I'm no apprentice of the greatest detective ever, but I think we can make a logical deduction about this."

Raven and Beastboy both raise their eyebrows.

Tim smiles. "Well, it's kind of clear, isn't it? You two are the only ones who have been drawing these things. What's the one thing that makes you two different from everyone else in the _**tower**_?"

Raven and Beastboy slowly turn their heads towards the closet connecting their rooms.

"There you go," Tim says. "Now... I'm not sure how dangerous this is, but maybe it would be best if you two moved out of your rooms for a bit?"

Beastboy sighed. "I suppose I could crash on the couch," he says.

Raven is less eager. "I'm not sure..." she seems to be thinking things over. "I think it might be something else that gave me that relapse. Aside from that, it's just a bunch of drawings. I think I can stay in my room for at least one more night."

Tim shrugs. "Your choice," he says. "Anyways, how about we all head to the living room? Last I checked, the others still aren't back."

"What?" Raven asked in shock. "How long have I been out?"

"It's been about..." Tim checked a watch, "Seven hours since they went in."

"That's not good," Raven says, jumping to her feet and rushing out of the room. Tim and Beastboy follow close behind.

When they arrive in the living room, it seems the explorers still haven't returned.

"Oh, hey, she lives!" Cyborg says, smiling at Raven. "We were starting to worry about you!"

"Yeah, well, I'm fine," Raven says. "Have you heard from the others?"

"You mean, in the hallway?" Cyborg asks. "No, they're still out of range. But I'm sure-"

Here, Cyborg is cut off by a loud crackling noise. After a few seconds, a voice filters over the radio. "-seem to be getting higher," it says. They instantly recognize it as Aqualad's.

"Aqualad!" Cyborg says right away, bending over the radio, glad to have some contact at last. "Where are you, man?"

"Is that Cyborg?" Aqualad comes in. "Oh, finally!" A brief second of silence, and we hear Aqualad saying, "Yeah, it's Cyborg! We're finally back in radio range!"

Another crackling, and Terra's voice comes through. "About time!" she says. "Only about an hour left before we can finally get some rest!"

_*Craaackllllleeee...*_

"I still say we could have found the creature if we'd just looked around a bit more." That's Jinx.

"All the more reason to just move along," Aqualad says. "That growling's back to being far off, and that's the way I like it."

"It got louder?" Robin asks, leaning in in interest.

"Oh, yeah," Terra says. "But, of course, we never found whatever's making it."

Robin leans back, scratching his chin as he muses. "Maybe... maybe there isn't a creature."

"Are you kidding?" comes Terra's voice. "Haven't you heard the growling?"

Robin throws a nervous glance at Starfire and Raven here, but fortunately, neither seems to have noticed anything too strange. Replying, he says, "Yes, but we've never seen any kind of monster. Maybe it just sounds like growling... maybe it's just... well, if the hallway's really changing, maybe it's the sound it makes when it changes."

Responding to something we don't get to see, Jinx says, "No, forget it. Either way, these short little explorations aren't cutting it. We need to step up our game if we're actually going to figure this place out."

"For now," Aqualad says, "let's focus on getting out of here."

XXXX

Finally, roughly an hour later, the three explorers round the corner and walk the last ten feet into the living room. "Finally," Terra says, sighing as she sits on the couch and puts her feet up, not necessarily looking like she ever plans to leave. "I'm starting to think that staircase is bottomless."

"How far down did you get?" Robin asks.

"To use a technical term: pretty freaking far."

"We finally turned back after about three and a half hours," Aqualad confided, "when we tried the glowstick test again, and- well, no points for guessing what happened."

"There _still _wasn't a bottom?" Starfire gasps.

"Not that we could hear," Jinx says grudgingly. "It's getting ridiculous. There _has _to be an end to that place, there just _has _to be!"

"As far as I'm concerned, it was ridiculous enough when it was just the ten feet," Raven mutters.

"Friend Jinx!" Starfire suddenly bursts out. "What is that thing in your pocket?"

Everyone turns to look at Jinx, who looks down. "Oh, this?" She reaches down and pulls out a thick handgun. "Well, like I said before, we're pretty sure there's a creature of some kind down there, and since our powers don't work in there, I thought it would be good to bring along some extra protection."

"I'm not sure that's the best idea," Robin says, eyeing the gun with no small amount of apprehension.

"Hey, I consulted Aqualad and Terra first," Jinx shrugs. "I'm actually pretty good with a gun."

"The thing is," Terra says, "I know you think there might not be a creature, but say you're wrong. Say there is a creature of some sort, and it attacks us, and we don't have our powers to defend ourselves. Maybe it's not the best of ideas, but better safe than sorry."

Though Robin clearly isn't comfortable, he lets it go for the moment. "Anyways," he says, looking around, "We need to decide if we're going to do another exploration."

"Of course we are," Jinx says immediately. "We didn't go all that distance to just leave it there! We have to find the end of that staircase!"

"I don't know," Robin says, rubbing his face in his hands. "I mean, with what we found out today, it might take a pretty long exploration to find the bottom."

"Oh, I know, believe me," Jinx says. "I've already thought it out, how long we might have to be down there. And I think I've come up with the number."

"What is it?" Robin asks absently, only to look up in shock, along with everybody else, as Jinx gives her figure.

"...Five days."

XXXX

*Double reference here. Shouting randomly in French is a reference to the Lovecraft story, _The Shunned House. _The exact words... well, throw them into google translate and see for yourself. Though, keep in mind, the translation to French came from google translate, too, so take it with a grain of salt...

I actually feel pretty good about this chapter. Next time, a brief interlude before the moment we've all been waiting for- unless, of course, you haven't- Exploration #4. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism and questions welcome, flames will be used for something you use flames for, Gamer4 out.


	10. The Night Before

Gamer4 in. We're coming up on the biggest part of the story: the soon-to-be-seven-chapters Exploration #4. But that's not until next chapter, so for now, enjoy the intermission.

Disclaimer: I do not own the number 4 or the words 'Exploration' or 'intermission.'

Chapter X

The Night Before

Perhaps mercifully, the film does not leap directly from the end of the third exploration to the start of the fourth. Rather, the next scenes detail the day between the two explorations, and include several scenes that many have delighted in reviewing when discussing the psychological aspects of the film.

First, we get to see the group sitting around the table, seemingly discussing the plan for the next day, when Jinx, Terra, and Aqualad are set to make their biggest descent yet. Jinx is still determined to spend five days in the hallway, so obviously some planning has to go into it.

"So, we'll be packing... a tent," Tim says, ticking items off on his fingers, "more fishing wire, flares, glowsticks, etc., plenty of rations, food, water, that kind of stuff..."

Robin takes a deep breath before turning the topic towards what is, in his opinion, the thing most worth discussing. "Jinx," he says, "I really don't think you should bring that gun of yours into the hallway. I'm uncomfortable around guns."

"We've been over this," Jinx says briefly, taking a drink from a glass of water. "I'm taking the gun, and if I get the chance to take care of whatever's making that growling, all the better."

"That's the thing, though," Robin says. "The more I think about it, the less it seems like there's anything in there. So far, we haven't seen any signs of life, no food, no places to get water, no place that looks all that habitable, nothing... left behind... all we have is that growl. I'm really starting to think that's just a sound in the place itself."

"All well and good," says Terra, speaking up, "but say you're wrong, and there really _is _something in there. Would you want to leave us defenseless? After all, our powers don't work in there." Looking somewhat reluctant, she brings her head up and looks him directly in the eyes. "Can you _guarantee _that there's not a monster of some kind in there?"

Robin opens his mouth, perhaps to argue, but he seems to deflate under Terra's gaze.

"Besides," Jinx puts in, "you won't be coming into the hallway anyways. You won't have to be around the gun."

Robin doesn't seem to be able to think of a counter-argument, so he changes the subject. "Okay, now, I've been thinking, and while we don't know how deep the staircase is, we know it will take at least three or four hours to get to the bottom- maybe more, if you look through some of the hallways leading off it. So, what I think would be a good idea is if you leave some stocks of food and water every now and again on the staircase, maybe mark them with flares, so you can pick them up on the way back. It'll lighten the load on the way down, and give you more rations on the way up."

"Seems like a good idea," Aqualad nods.

"Agreed," both Jinx and Terra say.

"About what you said, though," Jinx adds, "I'm not sure we should limit our search _just _to getting to the bottom of the stairs- especially if we weren't that far from the bottom. I think that maybe we should actually look for the thing making those growling noises- see what it is. If it's nothing, okay, if it's something, then we can figure out something to do."

"No," Robin says firmly. "The gun is a _precaution. _Ideally- and probably- you won't meet anything, won't have to actually fire. Five days is just the most you should be in there- just get to the bottom of that staircase, then come back."

Jinx looks ready to argue, but this time, Robin is firm enough that she's the one to back down. "Whatever you say," she says, no small amount of resentment still in her voice.

XXXX

What follows is what many people have noted as another fine moment between Robin and Tim. Tim is walking down one of the corridors in Titans _**Tower**_ when he comes to an intersection with two other hallways, meeting in a T-shape. Looking from side to side, he sees Robin turn around one corner, Terra around the other. As they round the corners, their eyes seem to fall on each other, and they freeze in their tracks. It seems neither of them notice Tim standing between them, as they simply stand there, staring at each other. Finally, Terra begins slowly stepping back down the hallway she came from, leaving Robin staring at where she'd been, and with Tim still looking back and forth in confusion. Finally, Tim speaks.

"What was that all about?"

"Nothing," Robin says, seeming to just notice that his brother is in the hallway as well.

"Don't give me that," Tim says. "A scene like that doesn't happen over 'nothing.' Did something happen between you and her?"

"Of course not," Robin says, his eyes not meeting Tim's.

Tim stares. "Please tell me this isn't what it looks like."

"It's not, because there's nothing there."

We can almost see the gears turning in Tim's head. Finally, he seems to come to a conclusion. "You're kidding me," he sighs. "This comes back to Emma too, doesn't it?"

As usual, Robin seems to pale at the mention of the name. However, his response is also the same as ever: "I don't know what you're talking about."

Tim sighs again. "Look, you and Terra are the only people in the___**tower**_ who seem to know who this 'Emma' is, it doesn't take a genius to connect the dots." Looking thoughtful, he adds, "Now that I think about it, you two don't ever seem to talk outside of meetings. I mean, you'd think there would be more bad history with Beastboy or Raven, but I can't think of any times she went out of her way to avoid meeting _them_."

"It's nothing, okay? Get off my back about it!"

"Robin, I'm concerned for you," Tim says, and he sounds like it. "I've heard about you losing sleep over this 'Emma' person, it doesn't sound like something you should be keeping to yourself." Stepping closer to his brother, he adds, "Come on. I'm your brother. You know you can trust me. Just tell me what happened."

"It's okay!" Robin says agitatedly. "You can go now!"

Tim freezes. "What did you just say?"

"I said that I'm fine, alright? Get off my back!"

"No, what you just said. Say it again, exactly the way you said it."

Sighing, Robin repeats, "It's okay. You can go now. Happy?"

With that, Robin heads off down the hall, with Tim staring after him. It doesn't escape him that he's heard that phrasing before. Shaking his head, he turns to head down the hall Robin had come from, never noticing the blue eyes that had watched the argument from the opposite hall.

XXXX

Apparently, after the slight argument with Robin, Tim decides to pay Raven another visit. As he approaches the door, we hear muttering on the other side. Tim, hearing this, lets out an audible sigh before approaching the door, allowing it to slide open in front of him.

Sure enough, Raven is on her bed, laying on her back, hands folded across her chest, rambling at the ceiling. "Endless darkness," she's muttering, "extending off into eternity. There is nothing there. There is no wood, not ash, not beech, not redwood, no oak, cherry, maple- no television, no radio, no stereo, no radiator, no refrigerator, no drawers, heat registers, thermostats, or clocks- no clocks at all, not even digital or grandfather or alarm- no shelves or cardboard or stoves or windows or sills or screens or-"*

Tim moves forward. "Raven," he says.

"Paper! No water, no bread, no books, no movies, no-"

Tim moves forward and attempts to touch Raven. As he does, the young woman suddenly snaps up, looking directly at him. She stares for a moment, then suddenly shakes her head, clearing it, and says, "Tim? When did you get here?"

"Just now," Tim says. "You're getting out of this room."

"What?" Raven asks.

"You have to get out of here," Tim repeats. "This place has some sort of bad influence on you. When I came in, you were muttering things again."

Raven looks surprised, but finally, this gives way to a slow nod. "Alright," she says. "I give up. You win. I'll sleep on the couch or something tonight."

XXXX

What follows is a sequence many have affectionately (or otherwise) described as 'The Last Supper.' We see the whole group gathered around the table, eating a stack of pizzas from the counter. Occasionally, one will shoot a quick glance at the hallway's door, sitting not that far from the kitchen, but for the most part, they simply eat. Conversation seems to be scarce.

Finally, Tim takes a stab at breaking the silence. "Hey, Terra," he says, glancing over at the young woman. "While you're in the hallway, mind if we rent out your room?"

"What?" Terra asks, looking up at him in surprise.

"Turns out that Beastboy and Raven need some time away from their rooms," Tim explains. "Long story, and one-" he adds quickly, at the sight of Raven looking up at him with pure venom in her eyes, "that I am not at liberty to discuss right now."

"I see," Terra says, not failing to notice said venomous look. "Alright, fine by me. I won't be using it anyways."

"Great!" Tim smiles. "So, Beastboy, you can take the couch, and Raven can take Terra's room!"

Interestingly enough, it isn't Beastboy, but Raven who objects to this. "No," she says. "Beastboy can take Terra's room. I'll gladly take the couch."

"Oh, come on, Rae," Tim says. "You don't have to-"

"Yes I do," Raven says firmly. There are some confused looks exchanged, but no one else dares argue with the half-demoness.

"So, where are they sleeping tonight?" Terra finally asks, mercifully changing the subject.

"We're sleeping in the living room," Raven says. "Beastboy can get the couch, since I'll be sleeping in it for five nights anyways, and-"

"No," says Beasboy. "You get the couch. I can turn into a dog or something and sleep on the floor."

Raven opens her mouth to protest, but catches Beastboy's eye, and finally says, "Alright. Have it your way."

A moment of confused silence follows, broken only by Tim saying, "Apparently, this is Burger King."

XXXX

The scenes round out with a flurry of various conversations between the various Titans and guests that occurred after the dinner had wrapped up.

First, we see Jinx and Cyborg meeting up in the hallways outside. The two had known each other for a brief time before, back when Jinx was still a member of the HIVE. Cyborg had gone undercover as a new recruit named 'Stone.' The two had had a brief relationship for a while, broken apart, of course, when it was revealed that Cyborg was a spy. It's unclear exactly what they thought of each other after Jinx had left the HIVE, but it seems clear this is one of their first moments of close contact for a while.

Cyborg, after a while of clearly not knowing what to say, says, "So... you seem pretty interested in getting to the bottom of the hallway."

Jinx gave him a slightly amused look, as if to say, _Really? _That's _the best you can come up with?_ Nevertheless, she responds with, "Yeah. I guess I can't stand not knowing how that place exists. I hate not knowing stuff- I want to... to beat that place, conquer it- get to the bottom, find its limits."

"Finding limits, huh?" Cyborg smiles. "Don't worry- you have a way of finding limits."

"And usually, I go right over them," Jinx smiles somewhat mischievously.

Casting around for another topic, Cyborg says, "So, how's Flash?"

"He's fine," Jinx shrugs. "Haven't been talking to him as much lately. He's been acting kind of weird, you know? Hasn't been... the same since a few months ago."

"Why? What happened?"

"As far as I know, nothing," Jinx shrugs. "Maybe he's just crazy."

"He'd have to be," Cyborg pointed out, "I mean, he's an honorary Titan."

"Does that make me crazy, too?" Jinx smiles.

"Probably. I mean, you're one of us, aren't you?"

Jinx looks around. "I'm a lot of things," she says.

XXXX

Following this, we get a shot of Tim in his room. He is reading a book of some sort when a knock sounds through the room. "Come on in," he says.

The doors slide open to reveal Terra standing on the other side. Tim looks up at her in surprise. "Terra!" he says. "What are you doing here?"

"I have... things I want to talk about," Terra says, coming over and sitting down. "And a story I want to tell."

For a moment, there is something of a silence, then Tim says, "So... what do you want to talk about?"

"I heard your... talk with Robin earlier," Terra admits.

"You did?" Tim asks. "Well, guess we weren't exactly hard to hear."

Terra looks down. "I didn't realize that he remembers Emma, too."

Tim snaps his head up, suddenly extremely attentive. "Am I about to find out who this mysterious Emma is?" he asks.

Terra gives a slow nod. "I want to tell you a story about Jump City," she says. "It's a story about a geomancer gone astray, a martial artist at the head of a group of superheroes, and it's a story about the city they all live in. But most of all, it's the story of a girl named Emma. I want to tell you about her. She'd want it too. I want to tell you."

"Mind if I write it down?" Tim asks, pulling a notebook and a pen from a shelf over his desk.

Terra looks somewhat apprehensive. "O-okay," she says. "Under one condition- don't show it to the others until I leave."

"Why?" Tim asks, an eyebrow raised.

"Because it's bad enough having to tell it once," Terra says. "Now, the story starts..."

XXXX

After this clip abruptly cuts off, we see Raven and Beastboy in the living room. Raven is laying on the couch under a blue blanket, while Beastboy sleeps just below, in dog form, sides gently rising and falling. As she turns over, we see that Raven hasn't quite attained sleep yet. She looks over at her temporary roommate, and we can see thoughts forming in her eyes. Perhaps, she seems to muse, it really is better to not be alone. She seems almost glad that, out of all the other things happening, she's been placed in the same room with Beastboy. Not in the way one might thing, mind you, but she seems happy just to be in the presence of another. It's in sharp contrast to being alone, left to brood in silence on the strange things occurring in her home. It really makes a difference, having someone else nearby that she knows, trusts, and cares for, and for the first time since they've returned from their vacation, we can see the thought beginning to form in Raven's mind: _It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay._ Slowly, her eyes begin to droop, and the next thing, her chest begins to slowly rise and fall in unison with the green dog below her.

XXXX

What happens next is yet another curious moment of the film. Of all the clips shown, it seems to take place much earlier, directly after the dinner begins clearing up. Robin heads off to his room, Raven and Beastboy head off to grab some personal effects from their own rooms, Cyborg and Jinx step into the hallway to have their conversation, Tim following shortly thereafter. This leaves Aqualad, Starfire, and Terra behind- and after a moment, Terra seems to come to a decision and steps out into the hallway as well.

It is here that Starfire glances at the table and sees one of the maps that the group had been poring over earlier on that day. She stares at it for a moment, and it is only when she bends over that we realize it is the very first map of the hallway- the one drawn out by Robin after Exploration A. Looking up at Aqualad, she shakily asks, "Who drew this?"

Aqualad casually glances over. "Robin did," he says.

Starfire's eyes hollow. Seemingly looking for an explanation, she says, "He drew it based on the tapes you made while in the hallway of darkness, yes?"

"Nope," Aqualad shrugs. "He drew it when we first got here, to show us what he thought we were dealing with."

Starfire seems to be almost shaking with sobs here. "Oh," she says, not betraying this out loud. "I see."

Aqualad turns. "Something wrong?" he asks, looking surprised. From this, many have drawn the conclusion that it slipped Robin's mind to warn the explorers that his first excursion into the hallway might be something of a taboo subject.

"Everything is wrong," Starfire says, a tear forming at the corner of her eye. "Everything has fallen apart ever since the _**tower**_ began to expand. But I never thought Robin would..."

Aqualad draws closer. "Are... are you okay?"

Starfire stands and pulls Aqualad into a tight embrace. "The... the darkness scares me," the young alien princess says. "And it has affected the others, too. Cyborg and Tim spend all their time trying to figure it out. Raven mutters in her sleep, and I fear she may be... 'losing it.' Even friend Beastboy has become more withdrawn! And Robin..." here, she falters. "Even Robin seems to have forgotten me. He just wants to find the end of the hallway, and I fear he will ignore the cost."

Aqualad doesn't seem to know what to do in this scene. Gently, he reaches up and rubs the young woman on the back, muttering, "Don't worry. It's going to be okay." Finally, Starfire pulls away slightly, and they look each other in the eye. Aqualad, perhaps making the typical mistake of seeing Starfire as a young child, leans forward and gives her a small kiss on the cheek, almost like a parent to a child.

Starfire freezes, slowly raising her hand to the spot. On her planet, kissing means a great deal different from what it means on Earth. Even now, several years after her arrival, she is still trying to learn the symbolism behind the act. And at this point, one kiss is still much the same as another to her. Perhaps deciding she should return the favor, she reaches out as Aqualad turns away and turns him around, delivering him a full kiss on the lips. Aqualad seems shocked at first, but seems to eventually decide to just go with it. Finally, after a few seconds, they break apart. For a moment, they both look at the ground, before muttering quick 'good-nights' and leaving the kitchen.

XXXX

Many people have jumped through many hoops to try and figure out what this scene is truly depicting. And, unfortunately, many seem to miss the point. It is a cultural misunderstanding that occurs between these two, and one that seems to mainly serve to set up a future scene in the film that makes the latter scene all the more poignant. In the later scene, we see Robin sitting at a lone computer in an apartment somewhere far from Titans _**Tower**_. He is editing together some footage that will soon become the film released to the public. He is going through videos sent to him via email from the other Titans, including all the clips discussed above, as well as two videos sent to him by Raven and Starfire, entitled 'A Brief Transcript of what Some Have Thought' and 'A Brief History of Who I Love,' respectively. It is unfortunate that after viewing the latter, the next tape he puts in to review contains the scene with Starfire and Aqualad. However, unlike many romantic dramas, Robin is not rattled to the core by what he sees on this tape. And the simple fact is, by then, so much has happened that it's unlikely Robin cares about much of anything anymore. Compared to all that had yet to happen in the film, what was one little scene amongst all the other things that had occurred? When he reviews this bit of footage, his reaction is not to rage at Starfire, or himself, or to place any sort of blame whatsoever. All he does is approach a video camera, and begin producing one final video.

_XXXX_

*A reference to the original book, where a corner of several pages was devoted to listing all the things that _aren't _in the hallway.

I'm a little conflicted about this one. There just wasn't much happening. Something that will definitely change next chapter, when we finally enter: Exploration #4: The Descent. First chapter of many to come starting with Exploration #4. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism entirely welcome, actively encouraged in fact, flames will be used to figure out why plastic smells so bad when it burns, Gamer4 out.


	11. Exploration 4: The Descent

Gamer4 in. And so it begins. Here is Exploration #4.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Greek myth of the Labyrinth.

Chapter XI

Exploration #4: The Descent

In the late night of April 14, 1912, a night that still lives in infamy, the colossal ship, RMS Titanic, struck an iceberg while en route to New York. Over the next three hours, the great vessel slowly slipped further and further into the water, until she broke apart and slipped forever beneath the waves.

In her final hours, the communicators on the ship sent out a desperate distress signal, hoping to catch the attention of ships nearby. In morse code, this signal amounted to three dots, followed by three dashes, followed by three more dots, in a pattern that continued on until they were forced to abandon their posts. Ultimately, their signal managed to summon assistance, but it was too late for the many men and women who found their grave on that fateful voyage. Even to this day, that signal remains the go-to signal for distress. S...O...S...O...S.

XXXX

Raven woke up earliest the next morning. Quietly, she rose from the sofa and headed to the kitchen, beginning her usual morning routine with a cup of herbal tea. Slowly, behind her, a green dog rose from the ground, shook its head as if to wake itself up, and then morphed into a young man.

Beastboy stood up, stretching, and turned to see Raven already in the kitchen, taking a steady sip of her tea. Smiling slightly, he headed over as well, and poured himself some cereal, following up with milk. "Sleep well?"

"Actually, yes I did," Raven admits. "I slept better than I've been sleeping in my room lately."

"Me, too," Beastboy nods. "Maybe Tim was right."

Raven doesn't respond, simply taking another sip from her morning wake-up call. She seems to be in deep thought, gazing out of the great windows at Jump City out beyond. Her next question seems to throw Beastboy off slightly. "Beastboy... does she make you... happy?"

"What?" Beastboy asks, looking up, an eyebrow raised.

"Terra..." Raven elaborates. "Does she... make you happy?"

"What are you talking about?" Beastboy asks.

"I mean... she really has done so much to us. Can you really just... forgive her like that?"

Beastboy takes a bite of his cereal, clearly thinking his answer over, giving us the vaguely amusing image of someone trying to look deep and thoughtful while eating a bowl of Froot Loops. "I... I was really close to her when she lived here," he says slowly. "She was a great friend, and when she... you know... it killed me inside. It hurt- it really did- but then, she turned around. She stopped Slade, then she stayed behind to stop that volcano from destroying Jump City. And then I thought I lost her _again, _and it started all over. I wondered if I could have stopped it, somehow, if it was somehow my fault... and now, having her back, having her just being one of us... it's one of the best feelings ever. It's been so long... and, I really believe in her. I have faith that she's turned, that she's not going to go berserk again. Having her back, these last few days... it's been like a dream come true. So yeah, I guess, she makes me happy."

Raven looks at him in surprise. "Did you hurt yourself last night?"

"I don't know," Beastboy shrugs.

For a few more minutes, they sit in further silence, Raven finishing her tea then rising to grab an apple from the fridge. Beastboy silently works his way through more cereal.

The next person to enter the living room is Tim, stretching one arm and yawning. "Morning, you two," he says, putting some bread in the toaster. "Today's the big day!"

"The fourth exploration," Raven nods. "I don't know what they expect to find in there."

"Well, we don't know. That's what makes it exciting, isn't it?" Tim smiles, but Raven and Beastboy can't help noticing that he doesn't look all that well-rested.

"Were you up late last night?" Raven asks.

"What?" Tim says. "Oh, oh yeah. I was... writing something down."

"Get out of town!" Beastboy laughs, looking at him. "You write?"

"Not really..." Tim shrugs. "It was more like... an interview. With a confidential source."

"What about?" Raven asks.

"The source wishes to remain anonymous," Tim says quickly, and mercifully, at that moment, the door opens once more, and several of the others begin making their way into the kitchen.

XXXX

Finally, the group stands around the entrance to the hallway, some looking anxious, others excited. Jinx, Aqualad, and Terra stand directly in front of the door, carrying large packs on their backs. They have a large, three-person tent, over fifty miles of fishing wire, rations for the five days they plan to be in the hallways, and over a hundred flares, neon markers, and glowsticks each.

As they all stand, staring at the door, Raven moves forward, the keys in hand. She turns to Terra. Looking like she's going to choke, she says, "Look, I know I haven't been the best host so far... but I just wanted to say..." looking more and more like there was something throttling her, she says, "... good luck." She reaches out her hand, and Terra, looking surprised at this uncharacteristic kindness, towards her at least, takes the hand and they share their first genuine handshake.

"Um... thanks," Terra says, looking somewhat off-put.

Nonetheless, Raven looks immensely relieved when the handshake breaks, and makes no further delays in turning to the doorway and unlocking it. The door opens, and, for the last time, we watch as the three explorers venture into the darkness of the hallway, turning right ten feet in, and disappearing into the darkness.

A few minutes later, the radio crackles into life. "I still don't see why we're bothering to bring radios along," comes Jinx's voice. "Seems like a waste of time, since we'll be out of range for most of this trip."

"Tradition?" Cyborg shrugs, though they can't see each other. "We want to know when you're on your way back as soon as possible."

Another noise floats in over the radio. Terra gives a nervous laugh. "Hey, growl. You're here a little early, aren't you?"

"Left here," interjects Aqualad's voice.

All the Titans stand around for roughly an hour or so, at which point the radio comes in again. "We're at the stairs," Jinx announces. "Beginning our descent... now."

A few minutes later, Terra's voice comes in. "These stairs really are wide," she notes. "This one has to be at least as long as a football field." A note of humor entering her voice, she adds, "Well, at least if we get bored, we can play some good old-fashioned-"

Unfortunately, this is where they leave radio range.

The other Titans glance at each other.

"And now we wait?" Starfire asks.

"And now we wait," Cyborg agrees.

XXXX

As the film shows us, very little seems to happen as the five days in the hallway pass. The Titans go about their business as usual, occasionally making video logs. Beastboy talks about moving into Terra's room, while Raven discusses her feelings on abandoning her old room.

Several people have noted a strange phenomenon in these tapes, and academics, of course, are quick to attach it to a demonstration of Robin's feelings on the situation- after all, later clips would show that it is he that edited a great deal of the footage together.

It is not immediately noticeable, and some people fail to see it unless they're actively looking for it. Every time the film cuts from one scene to another- between rooms, shifting focus on the Titans- it follows a specific pattern. There are three very short clips, usually only a few seconds long, followed by three longer clips, which will then be followed by three much shorter clips, and so on. Even in bits where we see a prolonged scene in one room, such as the unforgettable exchange between the Titans around the dinner table one night, the phenomenon continues- three short clips from certain angles, three longer from others, three short, three long...

S...O...S...

There are two main theories as to why this might be, and it depends on whether you think the events of the film are the most important thing, or the themes behind them. Should you choose to take the film entirely literally, at face value, (which the Titans have stated is how it should be taken,) then this phenomenon is likely a light foreshadowing of the events soon to come. However, some people, not satisfied with this, have tied the signal to Robin's personal feelings of entrapment.

The people who state this point out how restless Robin has been the entire time, desperate to do more than simply observe the hallway from the stable, safe environment of the living room, only examining it through the work of others. From the moment the hallway appeared, it seems, he has been desperate to investigate it himself, a desire briefly extinguished by Exploration A, but brought back to roaring life by the subsequent explorations by Jinx, Terra, and Aqualad. As he realizes the scope of the place, he begins to desire once more to enter himself and see what lies in the darkness with his own eyes. However, his promise to both Starfire and Raven keeps him from any further excursions, and he no longer has even the excuse that no one else will do it if he doesn't. Perhaps the feeling of entrapment felt by Robin during Exploration #4 is because rushing in and spending five days in the darkness of the hallway is exactly what he wishes he were doing, instead of leaving it to others.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence.

XXXX

Bearing in mind the labyrinthine nature of those dark hallways, perhaps it is inevitable that a scene like the one that develops does so. It is five nights after the explorers have entered the hallway, and we see all the Titans gathered around the kitchen table, eating dinner. After having seen the explorers with them so often, it is almost strange to see them dining without their guests. At one point, Cyborg gently turns the conversation towards the hallway.

"But has it occurred to us that we might never find out what that place is?" he says. "What if there _are _no answers in there?"

"Then we'll all feel a little foolish," Raven mutters.

"Well, what I'm saying..." Cyborg says, scratching his head, "What if it's... say, a labyrinth. I mean, say someone found the Labyrinth of Crete today, but had no idea what it was. They go in, they investigate it, even map it out and solve it entirely. That doesn't mean they'd ever know why it was there, or why it was built to begin with."

"What is this... 'Labyrinth of Crete?'" Starfire asks, an eyebrow raised.

"It's an old Earth story," Tim says.

"Actually, we have it on Azarath, too," Raven says quietly.

"Okay," Tim says, nodding respectfully. "An old Earth-Azarian story. Basically, there was this ancient kingdom- Crete- and the King's wife had offended the gods or something-"

"What did she do?" Starfire asks.

"Who knows?" Tim shrugs. "This happened in a time when just about anything- including drinking milk at the wrong time of day- angered the gods. Anyways, the gods were angry with this woman- or her husband- I don't know, there are too many versions- so they curse her to have a child with a bull, and the child turns out to be a man with the head of a bull."

"Oh, my," Starfire gasps.

"Yep," Tim nods. "Well, the King couldn't be seen to have a son that looked like that, so he had an architect build a gigantic labyrinth to contain this creature- the **MINOTAUR**\- so it could never get out and shame him in front of the people."

"That's horrible!"

"Maybe," Tim shrugs. "But it was evil, too- every year, Crete would demand some sacrifices from one of the other countries it ruled, and would force them into the labyrinth, getting them good and lost so the **MINOTAUR**could hunt them down and eat them for food.

"Well, you can imagine that the other kingdom loved that. So one year, they chose one of their sacrifices to be a great hero named Theseus. And when he came over to Crete, the King's daughter fell in love with him, and decided she didn't want him to die. She gave him a big ball of yarn and told him ahead of time what was in the labyrinth.

"So when Theseus went into the labyrinth with the other sacrifices, all he had to do was unravel the yarn as he went along, until he found the **MINOTAUR** and killed it with his bare hands. He then followed the yarn out of the labyrinth, where he was hailed as a hero for ridding the land of a great evil- by no less than the King himself. They say he cried tears of joy."

"That's not the story I heard," Raven says, suddenly speaking up.

Everyone turns to her. "It's not?" Tim asks. "Did I get something wrong?"

"I doubt it," Raven says. "That's probably how Earth's version goes. But Azarath has a different version. And, given that it's biologically impossible for a woman to mate with a bull to begin with, I would go as far as to say that it's the more likely explanation."

"Want to tell us?" Beastboy asks, looking at her.

Raven sighs, and takes a deep breath. "When I was young," she says, "there was an Azarian playwright that released a play based on our version of the story," she says. "My mother, Arella, took me to see it almost weekly. Maybe she thought it would have a deeper message for me...

"The play starts off showing the King entering the labyrinth himself carrying some food and a book. Eventually, he finds the **MINOTAUR** and we see that it's not some half-man, half-bull thing- he was born between the King and Queen, but he was deformed, and the King, worried that he could never be accepted by society, built him a special kind of prison- a labyrinth that had no bars or doors, so it didn't look like a prison, but it was so complex it was unlikely the **MINOTAUR** would ever get out anyways.

"Every year, the King sent an offer to one of the Kingdoms outside of Crete that he ruled over, and basically said that he could get rid of some of their criminals that had been sentenced to death. The other kingdom, which was filled with so many criminals the prisons were overflowing, was glad to accept, and would send off the criminals to Crete. While there, they would be executed as per the King's promise, then their bodies would be defiled to make it look like they'd been killed by some sort of monster. The King used this fear to keep others away from the labyrinth and what they viewed as a monster therein.

"However, when we see the **MINOTAUR**, we see that, despite his deformities, he's actually very intelligent. He's an avid reader, and when his father visits every now and again, he always requests a new book or two to read, desperate to learn, thinking that if he becomes educated enough, his father will eventually allow him to leave the labyrinth and join in with public life. On this visit, the King realizes that several of the books left with his son are filled with notes on philosophy and mathematics, and realizes that he's actually become proud of his son. He has begun to love him, and begins planning to remove him from the labyrinth, just as the **MINOTAUR** had always desired.

"Disaster strikes when the other kingdom, spurred by fear that this monster they've heard about could be used against them, mix a warrior into the mix of criminals that they send, with instructions to invade the labyrinth and kill the monster." Raven makes a look of distaste here. "I use the term 'warrior' lightly. The Theseus _I _grew up with was a drunken frat boy who didn't take a sword into the labyrinth because he couldn't tell one end from the other. The King's daughter takes pity on him, and, because she's afraid that the **MINOTAUR** would overtake her as the King's favorite if he returned, she helps him to enter the labyrinth and find a way back.

"So the drunken frat boy goes into the labyrinth, and eventually happens to find the King's deformed child, and kills him with his bare hands, dragging his body out of the labyrinth to present to the King.

"The King is horrified when he realizes what's happened, but of course, he can't admit the truth to his subjects. He still cries when he praises Theseus for ridding them of the **MINOTAUR**, but they're not tears of joy- they're of loss and regret."

A long silence follows the conclusion of Raven's story. Finally, Tim says the most obvious thing.

"Your mother took you to see _that _every week?"

"It wasn't exactly a normal childhood to begin with," Raven notes solemnly.

XXXX

Finally, dawn rises on the day the explorers are scheduled to return from the hallway. The entire group gathers in the living room, eagerly awaiting the moment that the radio crackles to life and offers the latest revelation.

And they wait... and they wait...

None of them leave the room except to use the bathroom. As it becomes clear the wait might be somewhat longer than expected, they put in a movie and watch it. It's pretty long, but by the end, the radio still hasn't responded. The explorers still haven't returned.

Slowly, they slip into their usual routine- Robin paces around the room, Raven brings out a book and commences reading, Cyborg and Beastboy compete in video games while Starfire and Tim watch.

And by the time night falls once more, the explorers still haven't shown any signs of returning.

XXXX

The Titans look much more tense the next day, as they step out into the living room, the dawn of the seventh day that the explorers have been away. Beastboy looks exasperated as he steps into the room to see both Raven and Cyborg hanging onto the radio. "Dude, aren't they back yet?" he asks.

"Nope," Cyborg says. "Still nothing over the radio."

This day proceeds much as the previous one did, with all the Titans waiting on tenterhooks in the living room for some sign that the explorers' return was imminent, only to be disappointed as the sun slowly climbs across the sky, and, as noon passes, begins to descend. Anxiety enters the Titans' faces as they round out the day with a movie, and the three still haven't shown any signs of returning.

XXXX

Interestingly, it is Robin that awakens the earliest on the eighth day of the explorers' absence. He slips silently into the kitchen, not wishing to wake Raven on the couch. Slowly, he begins to brew himself some coffee. And from here, he enters a scene from the tape of Exploration #4 that we saw months before the film itself was released. "They've been down there too long..." he quietly muses aloud, taking a drink of his coffee. He shakes his head. "I know what I promised Raven and Star..." he continues, taking another drink, "but it's no good. We'll have to go in eventually..."

He stifles this thought as a low moan comes from the couch, and Raven wakes up, standing and stretching as the sun creeps over the horizon.

Once more, the day follows the same way. All the Titans wait around the living room, hardly daring to leave, desperate for some news of why the explorers have been silent for so long. There is barely any talk amongst them, lest the radio finally crackle into life. No movies are watched, no video games played. They are too focused on the resolutely silent radio. And it is to their great distress when the sun begins to set once more, and there is still no sign of the explorers.

XXXX

Notably, it is not the radio that eventually changes the situation, but a night sound. The camera cuts to Beastboy, fast asleep in Terra's room, one leg dangling off the edge of the bed, one shoe off, one shoe on. He seems to be sleeping much more restlessly than he usually would, so perhaps it is no surprise that the quiet tapping that suddenly fills the room wakes him up.

He falls out of the bed, looking around. But the tapping has faded away. Looking confused, he scratches his head. Seeming to decide it was part of his dream, he climbs back into the bed. However, no sooner has he closed his eyes than he sits bolt upright, ears pricked as the noise starts up again. The room is once more filled with that quiet tapping. Using his animal-like ears, he jumps out of the bed and begins trying to trace the tapping to its source. He finds it to be coming from a wall to the right of the bed. Looking up, he realizes it is beneath a window. Looking out of this window, he sees the ocean spreading out beneath him. He sighs. There can't possibly be any tapping on the other side of this wall, that would be-

But there it is again. The tapping sounds off once more, and this time, Beastboy detects a pattern in it. Listening closely, he determines that three quick taps sound, followed by three taps more spaced apart. After this, there are three more quick taps, followed by three more spaced-apart ones. And it continues in this fashion for a few minutes, until Beastboy suddenly gets the message, and, turning white, he turns to rush out of the room.

S...O...S...O...S...

_XXXX_

That's all for now. Next time, we follow this chapter from the explorers' point of view in Exploration #4: Terra's Perspective. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames not so much, Gamer4 out.


	12. Exploration 4: Terra's Perspective

Gamer4 in. Sorry this chapter is coming late. There's a very important event coming up soon for me, the preparations for which basically translate to, 'Has little to no time to write anything.' Finally, I found some time here to sit down and write, so let's dive right in.

Disclaimer: I _do _own the Mountain Dew that I drank while writing this chapter.

Chapter XII

Exploration #4: Terra's Perspective

From these images of life back in the _**tower**_ proper, we suddenly plunge into darkness, as the film steps back to the beginning of the exploration to show what happened from the explorers' perspective.

The clip begins by showing us the trek from the entrance to the hallway to the spiral staircase. Just as before, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about this initial trek, as the explorers march on, leaving a steady trail of fishing wire behind them and pausing every now and then to make the usual marks. Terra has procured more tubes for wall samples, but has resolved not to use them until they have gone a significant way down the staircase.

Like before, nothing significant happens until they have already begun their descent. After a while of going down, Terra's camera pans around, taking in the steps that grow longer and longer the further down they go, while never changing their width. "These stairs really are wide," she notes over the radio. "This one has to be at least as long as a football field." The camera zooms in on a step stretching out into the darkness. A note of humor entering her voice, she adds, "Well, at least if we get bored, we can play some good old-fashioned football."

There is no response from the radio.

"Are we out of range?" she asks, sounding somewhat nervous.

"Looks like it," Jinx says, shaking the radio. "We won't be hearing from them for a while."

"So we're on our own?" Aqualad surmises.

"Yes," Jinx says. "Yes we are."

XXXX

Perhaps due to later events, the majority of this final expedition is shown through the lens of Terra's camera. And through it, we see, for the first time, a clear representation of the darkness in that staircase.

The steps, we soon find out, do not continually expand, but begin to shrink again, until the steps that the group is walking down is a few feet wide at the most. Then it begins to stretch out again, spreading out into the darkness. In the moments that it closes in on them, we can see that every twenty steps or so, a hallway branches off of the staircase, leading off into even more infinite depths. It is only due to their previous experience of the hallway that none of the explorers panic when they see this- and as it is, Terra and Aqualad's eyes linger noticeably on them whenever they pass one. Jinx, however, seems to see in them more and more opportunity, and her fingers begin fondling the gun in her pocket. It is clear that despite their immediate goal, she would like nothing more than to charge into the unknown and pursue the source of that growl, hunt it down, and drag it back to Titans _**Tower**_.

Along the edge of the twisting steps runs a hand rail, similar to a normal staircase. As usual, it conforms to no particular style, simply being something that is there. Terra and Aqualad run their hands along it every now and again as the descent becomes longer and longer.

As per the plan they'd come up with, every few hours the group stops to leave a bundle of food and water underneath a neon marker, so that they'll have it ready for the return journey.

For a while, things continue in this manner, with the group heading down the staircase in silence. Perhaps everything that they might have to say has already been said. The length of the steps continues to fluctuate, but that's about all that's changing.

Finally, after what seems to be roughly ten hours of walking down the staircase, Jinx stops them, and approaches the rail. She pulls out a glowstick, cracks it, and drops it over the rail. The other two draw closer, and the camera watches as it hurtles down into nothing, eventually being enveloped by the darkness. Despite the length of time that they spend there, nobody hears it hit the ground.

Jinx straightens up, and turns to the others. "How about we set up camp at the next branching hallway?"

Terra and Aqualad nod quietly.

XXXX

The film spares us the scene of the group heading to the nearest hallway and putting up the tent. Instead, it cuts to Terra sitting outside the tent, staring off into the darkness of the hallway they've chosen. She is motionless, and it is clear from the noises from inside the tent that she is the only one still awake. There has been, naturally, much debate about why she is out of the tent and awake to begin with. Some say that the group, still paranoid about the looming growl, elected to have someone keep watch. Others say she didn't feel tired, and headed out on her own volition. Several people, naturally, jump to the conclusion that it's a plot hole.

Whatever the case, it is still clear that the day's hike has taken its toll on her stamina. Whatever her reasons for being outside the tent are, slowly, her eyes begin to droop, and she begins to nod. Eventually, it sinks onto her chest, and she leans against a wall, clearly fast asleep.

We don't know for certain how long she remained unconscious, but eventually, her head snaps upright, and she lets out something of a strangled cry. For a moment, she looks around, breathing heavily, before she seems to recognize where she is. Still catching her breath, and with a brief glance at the tent to see whether she's woken the other two, she approaches the camera and begins to speak.

"I just had a nightmare," she confesses. "To tell the truth, I think I've had this one before, but it wasn't so... _vivid _that time. I was being buried. Alive. I was in this six-foot deep pit, no coffin, and people were throwing dirt onto me. I tried crying out, tried shouting that I was still alive. The people who were burying me looked down into the pit, and I recognized them- the Titans. And no matter how much I shouted, they acted like they didn't hear me, they just kept tossing more dirt into the pit, except for Beastboy. He wasn't doing anything- just standing off to the side, looking away, arms crossed. I tried calling out to him, but he wouldn't say anything, he just stood there, until just before I was covered- he turned, and he was crying. I don't know if it was from anger or sadness, but he was crying. He started to say something, but before I could hear, I was completely covered, and I could feel the weight of the dirt crushing me from all sides..."

Here, she takes a deep breath, and looks around the hallway. "Granted, waking up to this place doesn't exactly help," she mutters. "Not exactly the happiest place on earth." For a moment, she pauses, allowing us to hear that the growling has either started again, or never stopped to begin with. "I do wonder what that noise is," she says after a while. "I mean, Jinx thinks there's a monster of some sort, Robin thinks it's the place changing around, but I don't know. I think I really agree with Tim, though- whatever it is, it can keep its distance. I'm just fine not knowing."

XXXX

A few hours later, Jinx and Aqualad have awoken, and the group continues their descent. As far as we can tell, the second day passes much the same as the first. They walk in silence, and leave their bundles every few hours or so. Thankfully, they still have plenty of fishing wire, and continue to unravel it as they continue down, down, down. The length of the steps continues to fluctuate, going from longer than most buildings are tall, to so narrow that they have to walk single-file to get through. When, after six more hours of walking, Jinx drops another glowstick, and it still fails to mark any sort of bottom, Aqualad turns visibly green. "You know," he says, "I've never been particularly afraid of heights, but I'll admit, I'm getting a little vertigo right now." While neither of the others speak, one can't help that the feeling is at least somewhat mutual.

XXXX

The film cuts out the majority of the second day, choosing instead to jump to the end of that day, as Terra sits outside the tent once more, giving us an update. "I don't believe it," she is saying when the camera cuts back in. "Two days of going down these stairs, and there's still no end in sight." Looking around, she quietly adds, "There's something not right about this place." For a moment, she is silent, then sighs. "Yeah, I know, I know, I'm saying there's something not right about a gigantic labyrinth of hallways stemming from a hallway in my friends' _**tower**_ that shouldn't exist to begin with. But there's something else, something I noticed today..."

"I was stepping away from the other two to get another wall sample. And I'm glad I was, because otherwise, Jinx would have noticed, too, and she'd have become even more obsessed with figuring out what's going on here. There's something going on with her, she seems to be getting more obsessed every hour. She doesn't say much, but Aqualad and I have noticed that lately, she's been less concerned about leaving fishing line, or markers. Anyways, like I was saying, I was away from the group, and I reached up to adjust my hairpin, but... it was gone.

"Granted, maybe I just lost it- I _hope _I just lost it, but it got me to start wondering...

"There's something up down here. Not just that our powers don't work. That growl's always in the background, and... it sounds strange... you can't... take anything for granted down here. It's like the second you stop thinking about something, it disappears. After I noticed my hairpin went missing, I checked myself, and there are a bunch of little things that went missing. I had a package of gum in my pocket when I came in here, and I was carrying a coat in my backpack in case it got too cold. When I checked, they were gone. And I think... I think it's because I stopped thinking about them. You forget you have something, and you suddenly don't have it anymore. Forgot you had gum in your pocket? Poof, it's gone. Forgot you had a jacket in your pack? Poof, what jacket?

"The growl is still keeping its distance, thankfully. Now, more than ever, I really, _really _don't want to see whatever's making it."

Looking nervous, she brushes her hair out of her eyes, then, looking somewhat happier, she adds, "but it looks like we're going to start heading back tomorrow. Before we set up camp, Jinx did her usual glowstick check on the staircase. We still didn't see it hit a bottom, but we were able to _just _hear it hit some sort of ground. With any luck, we'll get to the bottom tomorrow, and that means we can go back. Our only goal here is to find the bottom. Even if we don't get to the bottom, our time limit is up tomorrow- we're only in here for five days. That means half of tomorrow going down, and then, if we're going to keep to the limit, we'll have to turn back, bottom or no bottom. And frankly..." here, she lowers her voice, "...frankly, the sooner we get out of here, the happier I'll be."

XXXX

The next day, both Terra and Aqualad seem to be in higher spirits, perhaps due to, as Terra said, this being the last day of descent. Jinx seems somewhat less satisfied, and almost seems to be sulking at the prospect of returning before reaching a firm conclusion. Nevertheless, they all remain quiet as they head down the steps. One detail that several people have taken notice of is that, indeed, they now seem much less concerned about leaving markers behind, eventually only leaving them over the bundles of supplies- and at the same time, they forget to leave one until almost an hour after the schedule calls for it at one point.

However, six hours pass without incident, when the end of the staircase abruptly appears in sight. The group freezes, motionless and silent, as their flashlights finally trace a banister at the bottom of the rail, and a solid floor beyond the steps. Silently, Aqualad takes a few steps forward, until he has finally dismounted the spiral staircase, and shines his flashlight around. "Oh, look," he says. "More hallways."

"What?" Jinx asks, sounding surprised. Both she and Terra take the final few steps to the bottom, and shine their flashlights around as well.

It is as Aqualad says. The staircase seems to have emptied out into a perfectly round room, with a diameter of roughly twenty feet, and with still more hallways spaced around the room's edges.

"How far does this place go on?" Terra gasps, staring down one of the hallways. No one answers. The room, as well as all the hallways leading out of it, are exactly the same as the rooms and hallways that led them to the staircase to begin with- perfectly black stone, occasional streaks of grey, and resembling no particular style.

"Well," Jinx says, "one thing's clear here: we can't just go back now."

"What?" both Aqualad and Terra ask, turning their flashlights onto her.

"What, you want to go back and explain that there's _more _to this place, that we just didn't feel like exploring?" Jinx asks, making it sound obvious. "No, there's no way we can go back empty-handed, not now that we've finally gotten to the bottom of the staircase! We have to explore these hallways!"

"No, no, no, no," Terra interjects, "that's not how this is supposed to work. Our only goal coming in here _was _to get to the bottom of the staircase. On top of that, we're only supposed to be in here five days. If we go back now, we'll meet that deadline, _and _we've found the bottom- everything's fine for us to go back."

"So, what, you just want to turn back?" Jinx asks. "You want to just give up after we've come this far?"

"It's not giving up," Aqualad points out. "We've fulfilled our goal- and we only had rations for five days anyways. We can go back and restock, and then figure out what to do next."

Though Jinx continues to argue the point for several more minutes, Terra and Aqualad eventually win out, and Jinx grudgingly agrees to head back.

However, events change when they find their first food cache.

The camera captures the entire group's shock as they ascend the steps, eventually finding one of the markers they'd placed a cache under. As they approach it, Aqualad gives a gasp, and Jinx freezes in place, staring.

The bag containing the food has been torn open, and the food seems as though it's been gnawed at by some sort of creature. The jug of water they'd left with it has been torn open, with wide gashes being ripped through the container. The water has, naturally, long evacuated the jug, but the ruining of the rations they'd left behind doesn't seem to be as horrifying to them as the implications the sight raises.

"Well, if you needed more proof that there's something in here..." Jinx says.

"Let's get moving," Terra says. "We need to get back up to the _**tower**_ and tell the others."

"Are you _joking_?" Jinx asks, turning on her. "Go back? After _this_? This proves what I've been saying! We need to find whatever did this, hunt it down!"

"Why?" Aqualad interjects. "Why is it so important to find whatever this thing is? So it growls a bit in the hallway, and takes some of our rations. Forgive and forget, I say."

Jinx turns on him as well. "What, are you scared?" she asks scathingly. "You're a titan, aren't you? It's our job to find monsters! Are you going to throw that away just because you're scared?"

"That doesn't have anything to do with it!" Aqualad protests.

"I think it does," Jinx says, a hint of anger entering her voice. "I don't believe this, we come on the biggest discovery of the century, and all you two can think about is getting back to the _**tower**_ as soon as you can!"

"We only came in here with rations for five days!" Terra reminds her. "We were only planning on staying in this place for five days! And we just found out this place is _even bigger _than we thought! At this point, the only logical thing to do is to go back and make a plan-"

"And what will this... thing be doing while we're busy planning?" Jinx snarls. "Whatever it is, it's nearby right now, we only put this thing down a while ago! And you want to abandon our best chance of finding it? There's no telling where it will be if we go back now! We're going back to search for it, and that's _final_!"

Terra and Aqualad exchange bemused glances, but it's clear they're thinking the same thing- _There's no way we can stay down here longer._

Jinx sees this as well. "Fine," she growls. "If you won't come, I'll just have to go myself!"

"What?" Aqualad asks, snapping to attention. "No, Jinx, you can't go off alone in here!"

"Don't tell me what I can or can't do, you coward!" Jinx retorts, stepping away from him. "If you want to cringe on back home, that's fine by me! I'm going to find this thing, and drag it back!"

"Jinx," Terra says, trying to be somewhat reasonable, "let's just sit down and-"

"No!" Jinx cries, turning on her. "You're just as bad as he is! Neither of you have anything to say to me! Have fun going back!" And with that, she hoists her backpack and turns back, storming down the staircase.

With her gone, Terra and Aqualad look awkwardly at one another. "She'll come back," Terra says. "She'll come back."

XXXX

However, when the camera cuts to a while later, it's clear that she hasn't returned. Terra and Aqualad are shown sitting in front of the same marker we saw them sitting under before, and the timestamp reveals that they've been waiting there for about an hour and a half. Finally, Aqualad speaks. "Terra... I don't think-"

"Don't... don't say it," Terra says, but Aqualad persists.

"I don't think... she's coming back."

Terra looks nervously around. "We can't leave her."

"I'm not saying we should!" Aqualad says quickly. "Of course we won't leave her! But the time might have come for us to try and find her."

Terra looks extremely nervous at this prospect, but, unable to think of anything else, they both stand, hoisting their backpacks onto their backs. Terra picks up the fishing wire, and they follow after Jinx down the spiral staircase.

Eventually, they return to the room at the bottom. "Which way do you think she took?" Terra asks, shining her flashlight around.

Aqualad runs his hands around the walls, before finally gesturing down one of the hallways. "This one," he says.

"What makes you say that?" Terra asks, coming over.

"She left a marker," Aqualad points out. Sure enough, there is a bright neon marker just inside the hallway that is absent from the others. Terra shrugs, and, after a moment of hesitation, the two plunge in.

XXXX

As they continue through the darkness, more and more twists and turns reveal themselves, making the fishing line more important than ever. However, inevitably, it eventually runs out, and the two still haven't found Jinx yet. They look nervously at the end of the length. "How many flares and markers do we have left?" Aqualad asks.

Terra looks in her backpack, taking a quick inventory. "About twenty or so."

Looking as though he's speaking against his better judgement, Aqualad says, "We'll have to go on. We can leave markers at any forks to find our way back."

Terra turns white at the idea of abandoning the fishing wire, but she eventually relents. "Alright," she says. "Let's go on."

XXXX

The timestamp then jumps again, showing us that by the time the film picks up once more, it's been roughly five days since they began their descent. We see Aqualad and Terra sitting in one of the hallways, taking drinks of water. Terra gives an audible noise of alarm as her canteen runs empty.

"Something wrong?" Aqualad asks, looking over.

"I'm out of water," she explains.

Aqualad sighs, leaning against a wall. "Not all that surprising, I guess. We only came in here with a certain amount of supplies..."

Finally, they both stand and continue on. They continue through dark hallways, until they finally come into yet another room.

"What?!" Aqualad asks, reeling back in surprise.

"No!" Terra gasps, staring at it.

The room is large and round- roughly twenty feet in diameter. Entrances to more hallways are spaced periodically around the walls.

"Is this the place...?" Aqualad wonders out loud.

"N...no, I don't think so," Terra says. "In fact... can't be. There's no staircase here."

This doesn't seem to comfort them all that much.

"So, where do we go from-" Aqualad begins.

He is interrupted by a loud cracking noise from down one of the hallways. For a moment, both he and Terra look around in surprise, until both their eyes are drawn to the flower of red blooming from his shoulder. Giving a small groan, he keeled over, unconscious.

Terra looks quickly around, and sees Jinx running out of one of the hallways. The time since she left doesn't seem to have been kind to her- her hair is disheveled, and she's in a clear panic- her eyes are wild and wandering. The gun she brought in is out and smoking. "I saw the creature!" she cries. "I saw it- it was down here, and I-" It is only here that she seems to recognize Terra and Aqualad. "Wh- what happened here?"

"That wasn't a creature you shot," Terra says, her head bowed. "That was Aqualad. That's enough, Jinx- help me get him out of here. Help me pick him up, and then we need to find the staircase and get him back to the _**tower**_."

"What, are you joking?!" Jinx cries, not in anger this time. Terra looks up, slightly panicked at the note of fear in her former comrade's voice. "I just shot Aqualad! I can't go back! Not until I find that creature to prove what's in here!"

"Proof?" Terra asks. Seemingly trying to inject a note of reason into the conversation, she says, "Look, Jinx, if you thought it was the monster- it's dark in here, I'm sure that could be ruled self-defense. No one has to go to prison here. Just help me get him to the _**tower**_, we can get him some medical attention, and nobody has to go to prison."

Jinx, however, seems beyond reach. "That thing's been following me for almost two days, now," she says, eyes frantically raking around. "It's a horrible thing. It looks like it might have been human once, but I couldn't say for sure, especially with those fingers... I saw it down here, and I opened fire, but I missed, I hit Aqualad- no, I can't go to prison, not for that- I have to find that creature, show them what we're dealing with- I can't go back without it!"

"Jinx!" Terra shouts. "Did you hear me at all?! Just help me get Aqualad to some medical attention, and you won't go to prison! But if you don't, and he dies because of it, I will personally make _sure _you get put in a big, stone prison, and _I will bring it down on top of you_! Now pick and arm, and _help me get Aqualad to the __**tower**_!"

"Can't... can't go to prison... not now..." Jinx says, hardly seeming to notice Terra. "Have to find that thing..." Suddenly, her head snaps up, and she stares down one of the hallways. "I SEE YOU!" she shouts. "THE OTHERS MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO SEE YOU, BUT I DO!" And with that, still shouting, she charges down one of he hallways seemingly at random, gun out and ready to fire.

Terra stares off down the way Jinx had run. Then, she heaves Aqualad over her shoulder, and turns to the hallways. Only here does she seem to realize that she doesn't remember which hallway she and Aqualad entered through. She turns around, and eventually chooses the one she thinks they came from, and enters.

Later, through her camera, she explains: "I don't know what's happened to Jinx, but she's beyond reach at this point. I can't reason with her- there's no telling what she might do next. I hate to do it, but at this point, I think I'll just have to take Aqualad and go back myself." Looking around, she adds, "But the problem is, I'm lost. I don't know which way I'd have to go to get back to the staircase, and even after that, it's a two-and-a-half day climb to get back up." Sighing, she looks at the ground. "I think... I think this might just be it."

XXXX

When the camera cuts back, she is running through another hallway. Aqualad, still unconscious, is leaning against her, blood still flowing from his shoulder. "I saw the creature," she is saying. "It's been seven days since we came in here, and I've seen it. It's just like Jinx described- it's tall, and it looks a little like a human, but not quite enough. I don't know if it saw me, but I'm not staying in here any longer. I have to find the staircase. I have to get out. And I can't be found."

Another camera cut later, we have another scene from _Exploration #4 _(the short): Terra, with Aqualad leaning against her, is pushing desperately through yet another black hallway. "My name is Terra Markov," she mutters. "I was born in Colony 9, Markovia, and I came to Jump City in 2007." Staggering a little under Aqualad's weight, she continues. "Terra Markov. Born in Colony 9, Markovia. Came to Jump City in 2007. I'm not alone down here- it's watching me- stalking me- maybe human, maybe not- long fingers... Terra Markov, Colony 9, Markovia, Jump City, 2007, Terra Markov, Colony 9, Markovia, Jump City, 2007..."

This time, however, the clip continues, as Terra collapses from exhaustion. From the ground, she seems to be raked with sobs. "I think... I think I'm going to die here," she says. "I still can't find the staircase, and even if I find it, I don't think I could make that climb. I'm sorry... Beastboy. I'm sorry... Starfire. I'm sorry... Emma." At this point, her hand reaches out, and she begins beating out a rhythm against the floor. She knocks three times in quick succession, then makes three more knocks that are more spaced apart. Three more quick knocks, three spaced apart.

S... O... S... O... S...

XXXX

All this leads up to the final clip. Terra has finally risen once more, with Aqualad once again leaning against her, and she begins pushing through the hallways. Finally, she rounds a corner, and heads down a roughly fifteen-foot corridor, which ends with a door on the left. She sighs as she looks at it. "No... this isn't right," she says. "I never saw anything like this before..."

Suddenly, she jumps as a loud crack echoes down the hallway. Looking at the wall next to her, she sees a bullet buried in it. Realizing the danger she is now in, she throws open the door and leaps through, taking Aqualad with her. She quickly slams the door on the other side, and searches for some sort of locking mechanism.

There is none.

Barred from that possibility, Terra turns to look down the corridor she's found herself in. It is roughly three feet wide by seven feet tall, and runs ten feet down to another door on the opposite end. Wasting no time, she drags Aqualad down to this door and throws it open, and shuts it quickly on the other side. Once more, there is no locking mechanism.

Turning, she sees yet another hallway, this one roughly nine feet long, but otherwise with the same proportions as the one she just exited. Gasping in exasperation, she makes her way down the hallway and throws this door open, jumping to the other side, revealing a hallway roughly eight feet long, with yet another door at the end. She shuts the door behind her, but is once more disappointed by the lack of any sort of lock.

"You've got to be kidding me," she mutters, but she is distracted by the distant crashing of a door, and, quickly deducing what it means, she hoists Aqualad and continues her flight.

Things continue in this fashion for a while, with her opening up a door to reveal another hallway, roughly a foot shorter than the one before it, and as she hurtles through them, it seems like the length is counting off the time before the end. 8... 7... 6... 5... 4...

Things only change when she gets to a room roughly three feet square, and still seven feet high. As usual, she shuts the door behind her, and, as usual, searches for a lock, and, as usual, is disappointed. Turning, she tries the next door, only to make the discovery that shatters the rest of her hope- against the odds, the next door is locked. Against her.

All hope drains from her face as she leans against the door behind her, slumping against it. We can see the conclusion forming on her face- death is approaching from behind, and the only way forward is locked. She has reached rock bottom, and things can't get any worse.

Unfortunately, whenever one thinks that things can't possibly get any worse, things have a tendency to immediately get worse. As she is sitting there, slumped against the door, a sudden impact slams into the locked door in front of her. She straightens up, looking at the door in terror. We can see the conclusion on her face- whatever is behind that door, she doesn't want to see it. She does not want that door opened.

But fate is less kind, as the door is slammed into once more. Whatever is on the other side is intent on breaking in. But the door still holds, even as a third blow rattles it. For a moment, silence falls, but Terra refuses to let her guard down, staring intently at the door, waiting on tenterhooks, and her paranoia is only proven correct, as a final mighty blow strikes the door, and this time, it crashes open.

_XXXX_

Once more, sorry for the longer-than-usual update. Hopefully, the longer-than-usual chapter makes up for it. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames will be used to light fireworks when the fourth of July comes up, Gamer4 out.


	13. Exploration 4: The De la Poer Account

Gamer4 in. Sorry for another long delay, but that event which I alluded to came up, and it has just passed. Now that it's over, hopefully I'll have more time to actually write. Coming at you with the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I waste way too much time on writing these.

Chapter XIII

Exploration #4: The De la Poer Account

In light of this film's inherent ambiguity, many, many theories have been proposed as to what, exactly, is the cause of the hallway. One of the most interesting concepts (and, unfortunately, the most incorrect,) is that the hallway is a result of the _**tower**_ itself being affected by the psyches of its inhabitants. Many an analyzer has written that the hallway seems to be born of some sort of psychic phenomenon, a theory all the more appealing due to the presence of Raven, whose powers are notably driven by her mental state. Supporters of this theory commonly draw attention to the various traumas suffered by the various residents of the _**tower**_, which is often what drove them into heroism to begin with. After all, being betrayed by one's family, a lifetime of abuse, seeing one's parents die, being the harbinger of the apocalypse, or becoming half machine doesn't seem like it would be healthy on anyone's mental state, and that's without bringing Emma into the equation. This theory proposes that the hallway was somehow called into being by the meeting of all these troubled minds and their cohabitation for a long period of time, essentially converting the _**tower**_ into a large mixing pot of bad memories and traumatic experiences.

This is a popular theory, especially among those who believed the Titans shouldn't have formed to begin with, because it converts the film into a cautionary tale with the moral that people who have suffered trauma cannot find solace in others who have suffered similarly.

However, this theory suffers a great blow in the film itself, which renders it implausible at best, and outright impossible at worst. And it occurs, as so many discoveries tend to, with an old stack of papers dug up by the local blue-robed empath at the public library.

XXXX

Raven, we later learn, was having a restless night herself, though it was more free from the tappings that awoke Beastboy. The camera captures her tossing and turning on the sofa in the living room, until she suddenly awakens, sitting bolt upright with an expression of panic on her face. After briefly looking around, she recognizes where she is, and, being much more experienced than Terra in the area of concealing emotions, draws her face into its usual uncaring look, as she slowly stands up, picks her robe up from the table, and draws it around herself. The film then cuts to her heading through the darkened streets of Jump City. Unlike Terra, she refrains from discussing her nocturnal visions, and simply says she wasn't sleeping well, so decided to take a walk through the city.

To anyone who knows Raven semi-well, it will come as no surprise that her chosen destination was the public library. It seems the place is open 24/7, as Raven has no problem entering the building and beginning to skim the books. There still seem to be librarians around, further evidence of the library's eternal openness.

Thankfully, rather than show us every painstaking detail, the film fast-forwards through Raven's trek through the books, searching for something that she never addresses out loud.

Finally, one of the librarians, an older-looking gentleman with a mustache, approaches her and asks, "Looking for anything in particular, Raven?"

Raven's lack of shock would indicate that she and the old man are at least somewhat familiar. "Yes," she says. "I was looking for a history of the island."

The man smiles. "Well, you're in luck. We just got some particularly interesting pieces. Would you like to take a look?"

"Yes, please," Raven nods, standing and allowing herself to be led to a separate section of the library.

The film cuts here to Raven sifting through what looks less like a book and more like an extremely-badly bound collection of papers. Outside, the sun has risen. From the gentle reverence with which she treats this particular tome, it's clear that it's fairly old. However, the gentleness in her hands is not reflected on her face, which has a disgusted look on it like there's a very accurately drawn anatomically-correct spider on each page. Finally, she shuts it, and turns to the old man, who seems to be nearby. "I need to check this out. Quickly."

"My dear, that is a very old volume, and I am not necessarily at liberty to-"

"It's important," Raven cuts him off. "I'm sorry, but I really need this book!"

Something in Raven's voice seems to communicate her sense of urgency to the man, who quietly nods, and stands aside, allowing Raven to leave the library with the old tome. As she leaves, he gives a quiet, "Good luck," after her. For a moment later, he stares after her, as though wondering why he felt it necessary to wish her luck. Perhaps the urgency in her voice. After a moment, however, he shrugs it off and turns back to the library.

XXXX

The film cuts here to a _**tower**_ living room in a clear state of unrest. Starfire is curled up on the couch, clearly shaken up about something, Cyborg is leaning on the other end, agitatedly looking over his shoulder every few seconds, Beastboy is staring anxiously out of the window, and Robin and Tim are united in pacing relentlessly around the room. This changes as, abruptly, a shadow appears on the floor. The shadow rises up and eventually takes the shape of Raven carrying the book in her arms. Looking around, it's clear that she didn't expect this reception. "Um... what is everyone-"

The rest of her sentence was stifled as she was rushed and tackled by an orange-colored alien. "Friend Raven!" Starfire cries out. "You are safe!"

"Should... I not- be?" Raven gasps out, struggling to breath through her friend's hug.

"See? Told you she was alright," Cyborg says, standing.

"It never hurts to be cautious," Robin says, looking relieved as he turns to see Raven struggling out of Starfire's iron grip.

"What's wrong?" Raven asks, looking around. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"BB got a rude wake-up call a few hours ago," Cyborg says. "Heard some sort of tapping in his room. Says it was making the SOS signal. He woke us all up right away, and we came out here, and saw you were gone..."

"And... what, you thought I went in there?" Raven asked, gesturing with her head to the hallway (her arms were still struggling to regain their feeling.)

"Well, like I said, it doesn't hurt to be a bit cautious," Robin repeats. "Speaking of, though, where were you?"

"Research," Raven says simply, nodding at the book in her arms, only to notice that it was no longer there. "W- where is it?" she asks, suddenly sounding frantic.

"If you're talking about the book you came in here with," comes Beastboy's voice, "it fell over here when Starfire tackled you."

Raven turns quickly to Beastboy, who is holding up the book. "Dude, this book is old," he comments. "When was this written?"

"1925," Raven says, urgency written on her face. "It's a diary, so it wasn't particularly durable to begin with, and it's almost a hundred years old, and it might give us a hint about what's going on here, so if you would _be careful with it!_"

"Take it!" Beastboy responds, slightly panicked at the fire in Raven's eyes. He holds it out, and she wastes no time in seizing it from him.

"A diary, you say?" Tim asks, stepping forward. "What kind of diary? How can it-"

"Let me explain," Raven says, heading over to the kitchen table. Everyone else gathers around. "Look, science and magic weren't getting us anywhere, so this morning, I went to the library to see if I could dig up anything on the history of this island. Anything that could explain what's going on here. Ancient voodoo rituals, old indian burial ground, _anything."_

"_Was _there anything?" Beastboy asks.

"Nothing," Raven shakes her head. "As far as I could tell, there weren't even any records of anyone trying to live here or develop it throughout its history. But then-"

"Let me guess," Tim says, his hands folded and resting against his chin. "Something came up."

"Right," Raven nodded. "This is the diary of Walter de la Poer. He was an aristocrat who thought the island would be good to build a house on, so he did. He moved out here with his two brothers, and they built a house on the island.

"The next winter was very cold, and none of the three were seen in the city at all. When spring came, some of the citizens went into the house and found it mostly deserted- no servants, no animals, no anything."

"Except..." Tim muttered, face in his hands.

"Except," Raven agreed, "for two corpses in the living room. Walter's brothers. No one could figure out how they died, and no one ever found Walter's body."

Starfire, at this point, is trembling from head to toe. "Wh-wh-why is this unpleasant story necessary?" she asks shakily.

"Because of what the diary says," Raven says, opening up the pages. Listen-

XXXX

_October 31, 1925_

_I believe this house is to my satisfaction. It has been quite a venture getting here, and now I desire nothing more than to rest in my new home with my brothers. With winter around the corner, this place is about to face its first test._

XXXX

_November 21, 1925_

_I had a strange dream last night. It seemed to me that I was lost in maze, of some sort. Though, perhaps lost is the incorrect word. I knew the maze well. I felt that, if I were to venture into its depths, I would be able to name every stone that comprised the place. It would be more accurate to say that the maze was my home, and had been for some time. Even as I ventured forth, and found nothing but endless halls of cobbled stone, I was at peace._

_Neither of my brothers have had such dreams. Danforth reports an ill feeling, though this seems to me only natural, with winter drawing ever closer. Howard, meanwhile, reports that he has been experiencing the sensation of being watched. These are the latest in a series of queer circumstances befalling us. _

XXXX

_November 30, 1925_

_An ill mood has befallen the house of De la Poer. I confess that my brother's imaginings have begun to affect me as well. I find that I do not sleep well at night, and I frequently wake with the feeling of being watched. Sometimes, I can swear I hear a voice calling me to subterranean depths. My brothers offer sympathy, but they know only half of it._

_The dream has returned. I walk the endless halls of cobbled stone, never able to discover an exit. However, it has changed. It seems... sinister, now. I desire nothing more than to leave, and yet I cannot, even with my intimate knowledge, discover an exit. Each turn in my labyrinthine surroundings brings me face-to-face with still more cobblestone, with no end in sight. _

_At first, I thought myself alone in the endless hallways, until a young man appears before me. He is an unsightly boy, incredibly idiot and clearly uncommonly drunk. In his hands is an axe. _

_At first, ideas entered my head about uniting with the boy to find an exit- for, idiot and drunk though he undoubtedly was, company was company. However, things changed as the fool swung his axe at me, leaving it embedded in one of the walls. I lurch backwards, in wonder that he would wish death upon what may well be the only other human left within this strange structure's walls_.

_However, it is here that I discover that, whatever I am, I am most certainly not human. I can see my arms, twisted and deformed before me, and covered with some form of coarse hair. I need no mirror to know that the rest of my body must be similarly deformed. My arms bulge with muscle in a most unsightly manner, and I can imagine that my face is twisted and curled._

_However, this realization brings new hope- I am strong, and though the boy seeks to destroy me, I have been given a chance- I can destroy him. However, as I reach the claws that serve as my hands out to rend him apart, he changes. His eyes take on a more mature cast, the drunkenness leaves his eyes, and his clothing alters to resemble the uniform of a German soldier. My memories from my own life collapsed into my dream, as I remembered that boy that I met on the battlefield in the Great War, whose life I claimed. The only life I claimed, before returning. Those eyes, once drunk and unfocused, took on a look of hatred, and he swung his axe once more, clearly aiming to kill. Before it could make contact, or I could move, I awoke to hear that voice once more, echoing around my chambers. _

XXXX

_December 7, 1925_

_A dark chill has entered the house, a chill that no fire can repel. My brothers and I have begun to sleep together, plagued by nightmares of the most horrible sort. We do not speak to each other of them, but for my part, I now find my nights routinely plagued by those endless dark halls. None of us desires anything more than to leave this accursed island, but a great storm has risen, and has not died for a week. We are sealed in, trapped by our own device. With food running short, I now begin to despair that we shall ever see Spring._

XXXX

_December 25, 1925_

_I know now that there can be no salvation. They hurt me. They have been for so long. Not every night, but they hurt me. I think they must hurt my brothers as well, though I have never seen them. Those deplorable creatures of the night! Abominations not of this world! I know now that this island would have been better left alone. On those nights, they drag me from the room, into a dark chamber I can never find during the day, and they torment me until dawn begins to break, when they return me to the room I had been attempting to sleep in. My brothers cannot recall any such events, but I feel them. If there be any peace in death, let it come swiftly._

XXXX

_December 27, 1925_

_I have told my brothers of the night-terrors, and they insist that such things have not occurred. They say they have taken it in shifts to stay awake, prompted by their own night-visions, and have seen me tossing and turning in the night, but never leaving the room. I attempted to show them the scars left upon me by the demons plaguing this house, but I cannot find them. I now fear that the demons have somehow hoodwinked us- the alternative is too ghastly to consider. _

_Food continues to run short. If this storm does not clear up soon, we may well die here._

XXXX

_December 29, 1925_

_Stairs. We have found stairs._

XXXX

So ran several select entries from the diary of Walter De la Poer.

All of the Titans sat there, speechless, occasionally gazing in horror at the door at the entrance to the labyrinth within.

"That's the last entry," Raven concludes, after a long pause, shutting the book.

Beastboy, shaking violently, says, "And... we sent Terra... and the others... in there?"

Another long pause. Slowly, Robin stands. "Well... nine days... and now this. I think there's only one conclusion."

"No!" Starfire shouts, standing up quickly. "Robin, you cannot-"

"We have to, Star," Robin cuts her off. "We have to go in after them."

_XXXX_

Man, it feels good to be back to writing. A few endnotes: yeah, sorry about the shorter-than-usual chapter, but several things contributed to this. Funnily enough, the whole De la Poer account (Which I will admit right now is one gigantic love letter to that master of horror, Lovecraft) was supposed to come in several chapters later, but I decided it fit better here. The main reason this chapter is being cut short is because either this chapter or the next one was inevitably going to end up much shorter than normal, and I decided that the part of the story where the rescue team actually enters the hallway would fit in better with the next chapter with this one. Still, kind of a shame that a long break is broken by a shorter-than-normal chapter.

Anyways, next chapter (which, with that event out of the way, will hopefully be out sooner,) the Titans form a rescue party, and we get a bit of a break from the horror when we follow Tim's story in _Exploration #4: Tim's Story. _Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames will be used to burn the excess of cardboard in my own house, Gamer4 out.


	14. Exploration 4: Tim's Story

Gamer4 in. Fun fact: I was originally going to have these author's notes fill in the part of the book I'm not covering, Johnny's story. While it's obviously a little too late to do such a thing now, I'm thinking of having a little summary of Johnny's story in a later chapter. I don't know, what do you think?

Disclaimer: I own a pen. It is mightier than a sword.

Chapter XIV

Exploration #4: Tim's Story

"No!" Starfire swiftly responds. "Robin, I will not allow you to enter the hallway of darkness!"

"Star, we have to," Robin repeats. "They went in there with rations for five days. It's been nine. And on top of that, Beastboy's gotten that signal- they're in trouble, they need help, and we're the only ones that can give it!"

"Why?!" Starfire cries. "Why must you be the one to go in?!"

"Who else is going to?" Robin retorts.

An uncomfortable silence falls. Finally, Robin speaks. "We need to decide who's going in," he says, turning to his companions.

The other Titans glance down at the floor. It is obvious that none of them are keen on entering the hallway, particularly after reading that diary.

Finally, though, one of them does speak up. "I'll go in."

For a moment, the words hang in the air, and Robin slowly looks up, as though uncertain that they were really spoken. Sure enough, Raven has a look of shock on her face, as though she herself can hardly believe that she actually said those words. Slowly, though, the shock fades away, replaced by a look of defiance. "Well, you heard me," she said. "I'm going in with you."

"Are- are you sure?" Robin asks, staring. Raven had been the one who had protested the most vehemently about going anywhere near the hallway, after all.

"Well, Starfire's hardly going to be able to go in there, she's claustrophobic," Raven points out. "And I'm not sure about Cyborg, either- if that place turns off powers, who knows what it could do to him. And Beastboy..."

Silence fell. It seemed that, despite her convictions, she couldn't think of a reason Beastboy shouldn't go. Beastboy, however, shakes his head. "Don't worry about me," he mutters. "There's no way I'm going in there."

Everyone else turns to stare at him for a moment. Finally, Raven says, "Well, there you go."

"So, you're planning on going in there alone?" Cyborg finally asks. "Just the two of you?"

"Of course not," says another voice. "I'm going in with them."

Once again, everyone turns in surprise. Tim has raised his hand as though volunteering- which, of course, he was. "I volunteer as tribute," he says, smiling slightly as he puts down a couple fingers to make the District 12 salute.

"Tim... are you sure?" Robin asks, looking uncertain.

"Hey, I know I'm not as used to dealing with weird things as you are," Tim smiles, "but I'm not about to just sit around here while my brother dives into trouble alone."

For a moment, silence falls, as everyone looks somewhat awkwardly at each other. Finally, Robin says, "Alright, we need to work out a plan."

"Go in, find them, get out," Tim says, smiling. "Fairly simple."

"Granted," Robin nods, "but there are a couple things I want to do- first off, we should do the same thing we told the group to do- drop off rations every couple hours or so. We should also go in with some more rations than just the five day's worth- I doubt they're going to be in the best shape when we find them. That said, we should bring some medical supplies, too, just in case."

"Here's an idea," Cyborg says, raising his hand. "We don't want to fall too far out of contact, so how about we get two radios, and just as you're about to fall out of contact, someone stays behind to set up camp so they can relay messages between us?"

"That's a good idea," Robin nods. "Any volunteers?"

"Sounds like my cup of tea," Tim says, smiling slightly as he raises his hand once more.

"Well, in that case, we should get two tents, also," Raven points out. "I think I'll head out and do some shopping of my own." With that, she stands, and a moment of focus later, has disappeared into a shadow on the floor.

"I suppose I should get going," Tim nods, heading out of the living room door.

This leaves the remaining four Titans in an uncomfortable silence. Finally, Robin stands. "There are some things I need to take care of," he says, turning to head out of the room. A moment after he leaves, Starfire rises and follows him out, leaving Cyborg and Beastboy to start setting up for the rescue operation.

XXXX

Among many other things, Robin's insistence on entering the hallway himself has received a great deal of debate. Many theorists suspect that it's tied to the classic male struggle for dominance- that is, Robin enters the hallway because he _must _conquer it to satisfy his male pride.

Others say it's more rooted in Robin's psyche, often tying it directly to Emma, an idea that would be explored later in the narrative. In essence, Robin feels the need to plunge into that darkness because he feels it will somehow make up for past sins. However, this ignores the most fundamental thing about Robin: he's Robin.

From the moment the hallway first appeared, Robin desired nothing more than to plunge in, to explore it, to find an answer. In this manner, he's actually similar to Jinx. Ultimately, while many factors can be attributed to it, be it pride, past traumas, heroism, or anything else, Robin feels that he must enter the hallway _because he is Robin. _

XXXX

Tim returns with several bags and packs full of rations, first aid supplies, plenty of flares and markers to go around, two flashlights complete with an insane number of batteries, two tents, and two radios. When Raven appears, she doesn't immediately seem to be carrying anything, but the other Titans, seeing that any effort to coerce information about her purchases out of her would be pointless, let the point lie.

Finally, after a great deal of preparation, the three new explorers stand in front of the hallway, staring in. After a moment, Raven takes a deep breath, and steps forward. We can see the cold instantly envelop her. She hesitates for a moment, then pushes on down the hall. Slowly, first Robin, then Tim follow after her. As per their previous discussions, Cyborg quietly shuts the door behind them and locks it. Then, he, along with Beastboy and Starfire, sit down next to the radio. A few minutes pass. At last, it crackles into life. "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, can you hear me? This is Rubber Duck, giving a shout-out to Pig-Pen, come on!"

"Tim?" comes another voice from the radio- clearly Raven. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, I've always wanted to do that," says Tim's voice.

"We hear you, Rubber Duck," Cyborg says, a faint smile crossing his face.

"Hey, is that Tin Man?" Tim's voice comes in. "Gland to hear it. Keep up the conversation- we have to know when we're about to get out of range, alright?"

"Got it," Cyborg nods.

XXXX

The cameras then jump to in the hallway, as the two brothers and the empath in blue make their way through the hallway. As we can see, they start out following the fishing line left behind by the previous explorers. Tim gives a low whistle. "Well, when they said it was cold in here, they weren't whistling dixie." Knitting his brow, he wondered out loud, "Where does that expression even come from? I mean, is 'dixie' a song? And why would whistling it be like making a big deal over nothing? I mean-"

"Tim," Raven says, turning her flashlight briefly on him.

"Yeah?"

"I say this as a friend- shut up."

For a while, things pass in silence, until the group is halfway across the antechamber, when the growling starts up. "Ah, there it is," Tim says, looking around with his flashlight. "I was wondering when we'd start hearing Mr. Monster..." Turning back to Robin and Raven in front of him, he asked, "So, what do we do if Mr. Monster actually decides to show himself?"

"Same thing we'd do with any other monster," Robin mutters. "Take it down."

A moment of silence later, Tim shrugs. "Sounds reasonable."

By following the fishing wire, the group is able to find their way across the antechamber and into the next segment of twisting hallways. There seems to be no doubt in the mind of any of them that they'd be lost without the path marked out for them by the wire. No matter how deep they go, the hallway is eternally similar. Nothing marks one out from any of the others, except possibly length. Every turn is a perfect 90 degree angle. Straight at a junction, straight again, double back through both junctions because they lost the wire in the darkness, left turn, right turn, another left, another right...

Finally, the tunnel-like halls opened out into an area much greater than the antechamber. Casting their lights around, the group can tell that they've found their way to the great hall.

"The stairs are dead ahead..." Raven comments as they press forward.

"...Well put, Rae," Tim mutters, following behind.

Sure enough, several minutes of walking later, the three finally arrive at the staircase in the Great Hall's center. For a moment, they stand in silence, peering down the center into the darkness it descends into. "So..." Tim begins, "who wants to go down the dark, creepy staircase inside the dark, creepy hallway first?"

For a moment more, they stand over the abyss, hesitating to actually enter. Finally, Robin breaks the silence. He reaches over for the radio, and speaks into it. "Alright, Cyborg, we're at the staircase. Can you hear us?"

"You're still coming in loud and clear," comes Cyborg's voice.

Robin sighs and turns to Tim. "Well, if you're going to set up camp anywhere, I guess here is as good a place as any. We just need you to stay in contact with us."

"Got it," Tim nods. "I'll... get on that, then."

Robin turns to Raven. "If you want to turn back, now's the time to do it."

Raven stares back at him with her eyes half-closed. "Oh, yes, Robin, I came all this way in just to turn around at the staircase after you give me that cliche line," she snarks.

"Alright, alright," Robin agrees, raising his hands in surrender. "Just wanted to make sure."

Without further adieu, the two birds turn and begin their descent down the stairs. Slowly, Tim sets down the bags he's brought with him, and prepares to set up his tent.

While there's no certain estimate of how long Tim expected it to be before he heard from Robin or Raven, the length of time that passes is clearly shorter than that sum. Namely, it's only a couple minutes at the most before he hears a distant gasp- and not over the radio. A moment later, the radio itself crackles into life. "Tim!" comes Robin's voice over it, sounding shaky. "Come... over to the banister. There's something you need to see."

"You can't have found them already," Tim notes, straightening up from the bag he'd just been emptying. "I just finished unpacking the tent!"

"No, we haven't..." Raven's voice comes in, and though she sounds less shaky, she sounds odd as well. "But Robin's right. Come on over to the banister."

Here, it seems that Tim has seen his fair share of horror movies, and is no stranger to the idea of monsters taking on friends' voices to lure the comic relief character to his death. Before he advances to the banister, he picks up his flashlight and one of the poles from the tent. Only when he considers himself sufficiently armed does he advance to the banister and peer over. It doesn't take long for what he's seeing to register, and cause him to gasp.

It's not that it was a very horrifying sight- in fact, under normal circumstances, the sight would be profoundly comforting. It was what the sight implied that elicited such shocked reactions from the three who saw it.

Because the thing is, there's a reason that all the previous explorations had been caught on tape. The Titans wanted to see everything those explorations had seen. Every step of those seven hours down the staircase recorded by Exploration #3 had been viewed by each of the Titans as well as the actual explorers. So, let any one of them try to come up with an explanation as to how, only roughly twenty feet down, thirty at the most, Robin and Raven had already reached the bottom of the staircase.

"I...it's different..." Tim gasps, slowly backing away from the staircase. "No... no thank you... no, no _thank you!_"

Robin tunes in again over the radio. "You getting cold feet, Tim? The staircase was the biggest part of this place... if you want to head back, you could probably do that..."

Tim looks back towards the halls that would take him back to the light and warmth of the main _**tower**_. Then, he looks back at the staircase that had just become even stranger than before. Then the hallways. Then the stairs. Finally, he sighs, and says, "Yeah, I'm thinking... screw that."

Unfortunately, as he speaks, the radio crackles into static, and Robin misses the reply. "What?" the red-clad brother asks.

Tim smiles slightly. "That's the guy that goes around signing light bulbs, right?"

"...Who?"

"Watt."

"...What?"

Tim sighs. "You know what? Forget it. I'm staying. Over. Out. Whatever. Some. Thing."

There is a moment of silence, then Robin sighs and begins describing what things look like at the bottom of the staircase. "It's a big, round room... there are doors all around the walls... back to following the fishing wire, I guess."

"Be careful," Tim says, reluctantly turning away from the staircase and returning to his bag.

XXXX

What follows is what many people deem one of the film's 'breather moments.' Very little horrifying happens over the segment focusing on Tim. And, since very little critical to the plot happens either, rather than discussing the whole thing, let us go over some of the highlights of what analysts have dubbed, _Tim's Story. _

XXXX

_Day 1, 4:00 PM_

Tim is sitting outside his tent, gazing around the vast hall. "Great hall, huh?" he asks of no one in particular. "_I _don't see what's so great about it." Shrugging, he glances around. "So, yeah, I'm just sitting here, neighboring with Mr. Monster here." He waves his hand all around. "Sorry. I'd point at him, but Mr. Monster is a bit camera shy. Even I haven't seen him yet. I've just been hearing his growl."

At this point, the growl grows louder. Tim, far from being scared, sighs. "Yeah, Mr. Monster isn't the best neighbor I've ever had. Has this thing for growling loudly and incessantly." Raising his voice slightly, he calls, "Can you at least stop that for night, Mr. Monster? Some of us will be trying to sleep!"

XXXX

_Day 1, 8:00 PM_

Tim is in his tent, operating the radio. "It's been a few hours," he comments. "How are you doing down there?"

"Everything's going... fine," Robin's voice crackles over the radio. "We haven't found Terra, Jinx, and Aqualad yet, but we've found a bunch of markers and flares- all the flares are burnt out."

Tim sighs. "The fishing wire still going strong?"

"No, we came to the end of it. A big coil, just sitting in one of the halls we came into. We've picked it up, and we're unraveling it for ourselves now."

Tim gives a small chuckle. "Ariadne, eat your heart out," he says. "Well, I'll check in with home base..."

A quick change in frequency later, he is making contact with Cyborg. "Alright, talk to me," Cyborg says.

"They've found some old flares and markers, but no luck finding the people themselves," Tim rattled off. "We're still in contact, thankfully. It's getting a little staticky, but..."

"Well, as long as you can still talk to them," Cyborg's voice responds.

"How are Star and BB?" Tim asks.

"Beastboy is sitting on the couch," Cyborg says. "I don't think Star's left her room since you guys went in there."

Tim glances at one of his bags. "I don't suppose Robin ever got around to explaining Emma to any of you?"

"Emma?" Cyborg asks. "Who's that?"

Tim, realizing his mistake, quickly backpedals. "Nobody," he says quickly. "Wow, it is late, I am really tired, gotta get to bed, bye!" And without further adieu, he switches the radio off.

XXXX

_Day 2, 8:00 AM_

Tim is reclining on his sleeping bag, staring up at the ceiling of the tent. "Hardly got any sleep last night," he comments. "Mr. Monster wouldn't stop growling. I went out at one point, thought I saw something, just out of sight in the darkness. I couldn't see it clearly, of course, and before I could decide whether I wanted to get closer, it was gone."

"... Funnily enough, it looked exactly like my old gym instructor."

XXXX

_Day 2, 8:43 AM_

"... How about some jokes? Okay, Mr. Monster? Hey, stop me if you've heard this one: There was once this woman who really, really wanted to build a house out of ninety-nine bricks. One brick more or less wouldn't do. It was her life-long dream. I don't know why that was her life-long dream, but there you go. Unfortunately for her, the nearest store she could get bricks from only sold them a hundred at a time. So she bought the hundred, took them home, built her ninety-nine brick house, and threw the remaining brick so high it disappeared into the clouds."

"...Not funny? Okay, how about this: I thought that baseball was getting bigger, then it hit me."

"... Puns aren't funny either, huh? Man, monsters are tough crowds..."

XXXX

_Day 2, 10:20 AM_

"Okay, I've been thinking, and I think I've got one that will knock your socks off. Assuming you wear socks, of course, Mr. Monster. Anyways, I was at a friend's house. He happened to be a farmer. So we were just chilling on his front porch when a government agent comes up to him and starts asking him questions. Eventually, he decided he was going to investigate my friend's fields for himself. My friend stood up and said, 'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' Well, as you can imagine, the agent loved that. He loved it so much that he reached into his pocket, pulled out a badge, and started brandishing it in my friend's face.

"'Do you know what this is?!' he yelled. 'This certifies me as an official of the United States Government, and it means I can go anywhere I want! Good day, sir!' So, he headed off into the field, heedless of my friend.

"So, me and my friend kept talking for a while, until a while later, when we heard the agent start screaming. He ran past us in front of the porch with my friend's bull chasing after him. So my friend, not missing a beat, stands up and shouts, 'Your badge, show him your badge!'

"... Can you give me some feedback, here, Mr. Monster? You're like the sphinx, I can't read you..."

XXXX

_Day 2, 11:30 AM_

"Alright, I figure this one will be more up your alley, Mr. Monster. There was once this boy who stayed over really late at his friend's house. It was already dark by the time he started out back home, taking his bike. Since he was running late, he headed through a darker part of town than usual. Suddenly, it became much harder for him to pedal, as though some force outside, some outside force was acting upon him. Slowly, it began to pull him backwards, dragging him towards some hideous fate!

"Fortunately, at that point, he went under a street light and realized that he was going up a hill.

"I think this place has a bad influence on me..."

XXXX

_Day 2, 2:34 PM_

"Okay, this is classic, you can't _not _laugh... Back in the golden age of piracy, there was a ship sailing the sea on a long voyage. One day, they came across an enemy ship. As the cannons were readied, the Captain turned to his first mate and said, 'Bring me my red shirt!' The first mate did so, and a few hours later, the ship had won.

"The next day, they encountered two enemy ships, and as the cannons were being readied, the Captain turned to his first mate and said, 'Bring me my red shirt!' The first mate did so, and a few hours later, the ship sailed away, once again victorious.

"That night, at dinner, the first mate confronted the Captain. 'Why do you always wear a red shirt into battle?' he asked. The Captain told him that he wore his red shirt so that if he was struck and began bleeding, it would blend in with the shirt, and his men wouldn't lose hope. The men were impressed by their captain's courage.

"The next day, twenty enemy ships appeared over the horizon. The crew expectantly turned to their captain, awaiting the traditional order. 'First mate,' the captain announced, 'bring me my brown pants!'"

XXXX

_Day 2, 4:30 PM_

"Alright, Mr. Monster, just one more. There was a woman on a flight with a small dog. She woke up at one point when she smelled smoke. Turning, she saw that the man next to her was smoking a cigar. Being opposed to smoking, she demanded that he toss the cigar out of the window. The man, offended, pointed out that there weren't supposed to be pets on the flight, either, and demanded that she throw the dog out of the window as well. Eventually, they compromised. The man threw the cigar out of the window at the exact same time the woman threw out the dog. After waiting a few seconds, the woman tugged on the dog's leash and pulled it back in, and in its mouth was...

"...

"...

"...

"...A brick."

XXXX

_Day 2, 10:27 PM_

Tim is laying on his sleeping bag, and, for the first time, it seems like he's finally achieved actual sleep, when the radio crackles into life. Slowly, he sits up, rubbing his eyes wearily, when a low moaning comes in over the radio. Tim jumps up in the air, slightly panicked, before looking over at the radio. Picking it up, he mutters, "Um... Starfire, right?"

"Tim!" comes the voice over the radio. "Why have you not been in contact?" Sure enough, it was Starfire.

"Hey, it hasn't been that long," Tim mutters, rubbing his eyes and glancing at his watch. "Only about... four hours."

"Hours?" Starfire asks. "Tim, it has been two days since you last called!"

Tim's eyes widen. "Um... what are you talking about? I'm certain it's only been two hours..."

"It has not!" Starfire insists. "It has been two days! We thought you had disappeared as well!"

Tim shakes his head. "Oh, boy... this place is messing with my head... is there a reason you called in just now?"

"Tim... something very strange has happened..."

"Aside from the two-days-four-hours discrepancy?"

"Yes!" Starfire says. "The... feng shui devices that Raven, Beastboy and I put up... they have gone missing!"

Tim's eyes widen again. "Um..." he stutters, apparently seeking a rational explanation of some kind, "Have you checked under the fridge? That's where I always find my left sock..."

"It is not a joke!" Starfire cries, clearly distressed. "I could not find any of the various ornaments we put up anywhere! They have disappeared!"

Tim rubs his eyes, this time out of exasperation. "Maybe... Cyborg or Beastboy decided to put them away?"

"They are the ones who told me!" Starfire cried. "They wanted to know why I put them away!"

XXXX

_Day 3, 7:30 AM_

"That's what she told me," Tim is saying over the radio.

"That is odd," comes Robin's voice. "We'll have to hurry. The sooner we find the group and get out of here, the better."

"How's the search going, speaking of?" Tim asks.

"It's going cold," Robin mutters. "We're finding fewer and fewer flares and markers. The ones that we do find are out. We can't find any of the rations they left behind at all. Maybe-"

Suddenly, the radio cut to static. "Robin?" Tim says, prodding at it. "Robin?" But no matter how long he waits, the radio has officially cut out at last.

"...Well, this is just fantastic..."

XXXX

_Day 3, 10:45 AM_

"Well, nothing much else to do, Mr. Monster. You've been a very good host- aside from the whole 'making-my-friends-disappear' thing and the whole 'time-in-the-halls-isn't-equal-to-time-outside' thing. You know, in retrospect, you've been a really lousy host. But still, just to show there's no hard feelings, how about a shadow puppet show?"

Tim, sitting in his tent, props up the flashlight and puts his hands in front of it, contorting them into intricate shapes. "Oh, look, is that Mr. Monster? Mr. Monster has a frowny face on, I think. But that's why... he invented a time machine! And he went back to the age when dinosaurs ruled the earth!" He begins making several odd noises, apparently in imitation of dinosaurs, before looking around self-consciously. "...I really am losing it," he mutters.

XXXX

_Day 3, 12:00 PM_

"Hey, everybody, it's Tim Drake, and welcome back to more let's sing silly songs with Tim Drake!" Deepening his voice, he begins to croon, "Somewhere, over the rainbow..."

He is cut off when the radio crackles to life once more. "T-im!" comes Robin's voice, sounding panicked.

"Robin!" Tim says, quickly jumping on the radio. "What's going on!"

"Can't- -plain!" Robin says quickly, his voice cutting in and out. "Found- -ra... -qualad! Raven... shot!" A loud crack that sounds very much like a gunshot sounds off. Static. "-im!" Robin's voice comes in. "You have to meet us at the bottom of the staircase! Hurry! The bottom of-" Here, there is another gunshot-like noise, and the radio goes dead again.

Tim turns nervously to face the staircase. "Oh... oh, boy," he mutters. "I didn't exactly sign up for this..."

He approaches the staircase and peers over the edge. "It's pretty different, actually being here..."

Looking around, he calls out, "Well, you heard him, Mr. Monster! Gotta go down! Sorry I couldn't-"

As he speaks, he sets one foot down on the first step. He is cut off as the growling suddenly grows a hundredfold in intensity. Tim looks urgently around. Looking up, he sees the ceiling collapsing towards him, forming a sort of oval above him. Beneath him, the spiral staircase suddenly stretches out like an accordion, then collapses back to the 20-30 feet it had been before. As that happened, the ceiling returned to its original position as well, and the growling died down.

Taking the hint, Tim removed his foot from the staircase. "Okay," he said. "Nope. No. Uh-uh. No thank you..."

XXXX

_Day 3, 12:05_

Tim is sitting outside the tent, looking down the stairs in horror. Finally, he seems to come to a decision. He picks up the radio. "Starfire? Cyborg? Beastboy? You there?"

"I am here, Tim," Starfire's voice responds.

"How long has it been since I last called?"

"...Three hours."

"Good, good. Same here. Look... I'm coming back."

_XXXX_

Hope I didn't hit you with one too many bad jokes here. Anyways, next time, we follow this chapter from Raven and Robin's perspective with _Exploration #4: The Rescue. _Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames to be delegated to the ring of fire, Gamer4 out.


	15. Exploration 4: The Rescue

Gamer4 in. I'm not sure, going into this, how long this chapter will be, but a heck of a lot is going to be happening here. Let's dive right in.

Disclaimer: I own the right to come up with random, ridiculous ways of saying that I don't own either _**House**_ of Leaves or Teen Titans.

Chapter XV

Exploration #4: The Rescue

At this point, the film cuts back to the point at which Robin and Raven descended the staircase, but this time, follows them, rather than Tim. We see a look of shock on Robin's face as he takes in the bottom of the stairs, so much further up than they were before, and while Raven by nature tries to conceal her own surprise, it is still evident to those that know her well. Robin reaches for his radio. "Tim!" he says, sounding shaky. "Come... over to the banister. There's something you need to see."

"-Can't have found them already," flickers in Tim's voice on the radio. They seem even more slightly disturbed that they hardly even need the radio to hear his voice. "I just finished unpacking the tent!"

"No, we haven't," Raven agrees, sounding odd as her eyes scan around the dark chamber. "But Robin's right. Come over to the banister."

A moment or two passes, and then they hear a gasp over the radio. "I...it's different!" comes Tim's voice once more. "No... no thank you... no, no _thank you!"_

Robin looks down at the radio. "You getting cold feet, Tim? The staircase was the biggest part of this place... if you want to head back, you can probably do that..."

Another moment or two passes. For a moment, something very like anxiety crosses Robin's face, as though he is worried Tim will actually accept the offer. Finally, the radio crackles and Tim comes in with his answer. "Yeah, I'm thinking-" Unfortunately, the rest of the reply is cut off by a burst of static.

Agitatedly rapping the top of the radio a couple times, Robin speaks. "What?"

Tim's reply sounds less nervous than he has been lately. "That's the guy that goes around signing light bulbs, right?"

Robin exchanges a bemused glance with Raven. "...Who?"

"Watt."

Behind Robin, Raven places her face in her hand, but the joke seems to fly over Robin's head. "...What?"

A sigh over the radio. "You know what? Forget it. I'm staying. Over. Out. Whatever. Some. Thing."

Robin looks bewildered, but begins looking around the room, and starts describing it to his brother. "It's a big, round room... there are doors all around the walls..." Here, he looks down and sees that the thin silver of the fishing wire is leading into a doorway off to the left. "Back to following the fishing wire, I guess," he mutters.

A moment of silence, and Tim comes back in. "Be careful," he says simply.

Robin nods, and turns to Raven. "Ready to go."

"...As I'll ever be," Raven says, looking uncertainly at the stairs. As they set off, Raven mutters, "You do realize what this means, right?"

"This place really does change," Robin mutters back. Neither of them can exactly pinpoint why they are muttering, but it is as if they are afraid of speaking too loudly, of breaking the silence of that place.

"That too," Raven nods.

"Then what were you talking about?"

"...If that staircase decides to stretch out again, we're scre-"

XXXX

The film then shows a few highlights of their trip through the hallways. Given the unrelenting darkness and simple _sameness _of that place, there aren't many. The only time the camera cuts back in is to show the two approaching a flare or marker. However, there is, unrelentingly, no sign of the people they are searching for. They have no real choice but to keep following the fishing wire, but eventually, even that reservoir of hope runs dry.

They are walking down a particularly long hallway, not having seen any turns or diverging paths for a while when Robin gives a grunt and stumbles forward.

"You alright?" Raven asks, stepping forward with a look of concern on her face.

"Yeah, I just tripped on something..."

Their flashlights converge on the thing he'd tripped over. It is a large mound of coiled wire.

"No..." Raven mutters, moving closer.

"Is this... what I think it is?" Robin mutters, stepping closer.

For a moment, they cast their flashlights down the hallway to see if the wire continues onwards. It does not. The wire ends with the coil.

"I guess that explains where the extra wire from the longer staircase went," Robin mutters.

"But... wire doesn't just coil itself," Raven points out, still moving her flashlight around. "Who... or what, did this?"

Robin is silent for a moment, then picks up the wire and lifts it onto his shoulder. "Well, no sense letting it go to waste," he says. "We'll leave it to mark our own path."

Raven has no disagreements, so they turn and continue down the hallway, unraveling the wire as they go.

XXXX

It is much later on in the day- specifically, the timestamp shows around 8:00. Robin and Raven are still walking forwards when a voice crackles over the radio. Robin picks it up. "It's been a few hours," says the voice at the other end. "How are you doing down there?"

"Everything's going... fine," Robin says, looking slightly tentative to describe their situation as such, but not wanting to worry his brother. "We haven't found Terra, Jinx, and Aqualad yet, but we've found a bunch of markers and flares- all the flares are burnt out."

A sigh, then Tim responds. "The fishing wire still going strong?"

Robin winces slightly. "No, we came to the end of it. A big coil, just sitting in one of the halls we came into. We've picked it up, and we're unraveling it for ourselves now."

A second or two later, Tim responds, a jovial note in his voice. "Ariadne, eat your heart out." A brief pause later, he says, "Well, I'll check in with home base..."

Robin sets the radio aside. They have stumbled into another large room, not unlike the antechamber. "You know, it's starting to run a little late," he comments to Raven. "It might not be the worst idea in the world to set up camp here."

"Alright," Raven agrees. "I'll stay up and... keep watch."

Robin looks like he is about to interject, but ultimately refrains.

XXXX

The next roughly-defined 'day,' Robin and Raven are continuing their trek through the halls. They are largely silent, especially as there isn't really much to say as they continue their trudging. Over the day, they find a few more traces of the previous explorers- an old, burnt-out flare, a long-darkened marker. At one point, Raven remarks that they haven't been seeing any of the rations that the explorers were supposed to be leaving behind, but at that point, they aren't really surprised. Occasionally, they call up Tim on the radio, but neither he nor the rest of the Titans back at the _**tower**_ have anything to report.

And so, the second day ends much as the first, with the two setting up camp in an area that seemed to have enough room, and preparing to sleep. Once again, Raven stays up.

While she does make a few comments towards the camera, she is not nearly as talkative as Terra and Tim had been, simply making a few random statements every now and again. "I can't tell if it's wrong that we're getting used to hearing that growl." "Exactly how far in did they come?" Statements like that are prevalent. However, being the reserved person she is, not much more is said.

XXXX

The next day, Raven and Robin are awake and eating a small breakfast with the radio beside them. Just as they finish, the radio crackles into life. "Hey," comes Tim's voice. "You two awake?"

"Yep," Robin nods unnecessarily. "We just finished breakfast. Anything to report from the home front?" As they speak, they begin trekking down the hallways once more.

"Yeah, that's why I called you. Well, more Raven, to be honest."

"What is it?" Raven asks, looking at the radio.

"Starfire chimed in last night. It seems that all that feng shui stuff you, her, and Beastboy put up has gone missing."

"What?!" Raven asks, her eyes filling with fire. "Who took it down?!"

"She doesn't know," Tim confesses. "Apparently, Beastboy and Cyborg pointed it out to her, so it probably wasn't them."

"Can we be sure about that?" Raven asks.

"Look, all I know is what she told me, and that's what she told me," Tim says.

After a moment of silence, Robin says, "That is odd. We'll have to hurry. The sooner we find the group and get out of here, the better."

"How's the search going, speaking of?" Tim responds.

"It's going cold," Robin mutters, not looking at all happy about it. "We're finding fewer and fewer flares and markers. The ones that we do find are out. We can't find any of the rations they left behind at all. Maybe they just didn't leave any behind, but somehow, I doubt that."

For a moment, they look at the radio, awaiting a reply. However, the radio remains silent. "Tim?" Robin asks, looking at the radio. He jostles it a little, but nothing changes. "Tim!"

"Robin!" Raven says quickly. "Relax. The radio just died. We knew this might happen eventually."

For a moment, Robin is silent. "Then what do we do now?" he finally wonders out loud. "Keep going, getting further out of contact?"

"We can't do that," Raven says, shaking her head. "And besides, we still have the fishing wire..."

They look at the coil, still being carried by Robin. It has shrunk considerably since they found it. It is clear that they won't be able to rely on it much longer.

"We can worry about that later," Raven replies when Robin points that out. "Come on, let's move."

Here begins yet another segment of not much happening, as the time on the cameras speeds forward, editing out hours of uneventfulness. The flares and markers that they could find before have long since stopped appearing. Nothing further happens until around five minutes before noon. Robin softly calls out to Raven.

"What is it?" she asks, turning, only to see precisely what it is. Robin is now holding no coil, only the end of a long length of wire. Their 'Ariadne's string' has run out.

"The bridge has come," Robin comments. "Time to cross it."

For a moment, they stare at each other. Finally, Raven throws the flashlight around a little bit. Darkness one direction, darkness in the other. They are in another straight hallway, wider than a few of the other hallways they've been through, and there aren't any turns for a while in either direction. "Well," she comments, "I guess we can-"

All further discussion is cut off as the growl suddenly revives with a vengeance. It is growing much louder, as though the source is rapidly drawing closer- from the direction they just came.

"You still think that's just the place settling?" Raven asks, staring in that direction, almost paralyzed.

"It's possible," Robin says, speaking quickly, "but I don't want to hang around and find out. Move!"

He drops the wire, and without further adieu, the two turn away from it and sprint in the other direction. The hallway offers no respite, endlessly long and dark. However, it eventually does diverge- they could either continue straight on or turn to the right. The growl still seems to be drawing closer. Looking quickly at both of their options, they spot a door at the end of the right hallway. Looking at each other, they nod quickly and rush towards it. Robin reaches out and grabs the knob. "Locked!" he growls in frustration. He steps back a few feet and rushes at the door. It rattles, but resists him. Raven watches as he steps back and charges once more, slamming into the door with his right shoulder. However, the door remains steadfast. A third rush, and the door is still resolute.

"Robin!" Raven says as Robin steps back once more. "How about we break it down together?"

Robin only gives a brief moment of silence before he nods. The two step backwards, and then, as one, charge the door, slamming into it simultaneously. The force of two titans does what one hadn't- the door smashes open.

On the other side, Robin and Raven gasp at the sight that awaits them. It is a small room, roughly three feet square in area and seven feet high. Laying on the ground, backs to the wall, are two youths- a young man dressed in blue, bleeding out of one shoulder and unconscious. The other is a young woman with blond hair, with scared-looking eyes staring up at them. However, as her eyes adjust, the fear fades away. Slowly, Terra stands, a smile spreading across her face. She almost laughs for joy. We can see the thought spreading across her face, wiping away fear and bringing hope, as she realizes that her death sentence has been revoked.

She is going to live.

XXXX

The next moment on the film happens so quickly that it encompasses only three frames. In the first, we can see Raven opening her mouth, perhaps to exclaim at their discovery. Terra is smiling in joy at her impending rescue. The second frame is much the same as the first, except that a small, few-millimeters-large speck has entered the picture, and is currently a few inches at the most from Terra's forehead. And in the third, it has penetrated that space, knocking Terra's head back with a crack, as red begins to spill from a newly-opened wound. A few milliseconds later on the soundtrack, we hear a loud cracking noise- the unmistakable sound of gunfire. And in the frames afterwards, Terra wordlessly crumples to the ground, and moves no more.

Robin gives a shout, and spins around to see a shadowy figure at the end of the hallway. The figure has a gun out, and is firing down the hallway at them. Raven and Robin dive behind the door and pull it shut. A few more bullets rattle against the frame. Realizing this problem won't disappear, Raven reaches into her robe and pulls out the gun that she has with her, opens the door a crack, and fires back. Thankfully, this seems to impede whoever was firing at them, as returning shots start to slow, then stop altogether. Robin sneaks a look through the crack, and sees that the figure has disappeared. "I think... she's gone..." this statement marks that, at least on a subconscious level, he has realized who the assailant must be. He turns to Raven. "Since when did you have a gun?"

"I bought it before we came in. I had it the whole time."

"Why?"

"Are you kidding me? This place is scary."

Looking around, they realize that, along with the gunshots, the growling has ceased as well. They turn to look at the two forms on the floor- the bleeding-out, unconscious form of Aqualad, and the crumpled, lifeless form that had once been Terra.

"What... do we do now?" Robin asks, staring at them as though the reality of the situation seemed... unreal.

"Let's grab them," Raven says. "We're heading back."

"And Jinx?"

For a moment, they stare at each other, but the thought seems to occur to them both- even if they were to find Jinx, there was nothing they'd be able to do to bring her back.

XXXX

The camera cuts once more. Robin and Raven have returned to the wire and are following it back to the staircase. Raven is carrying Terra over her back in the fireman's carry, and Robin is carrying Aqualad in the same fashion. Suddenly, another gunshot rings out. Robin spins around to see the figure approaching them once more. He hears a grunt to his side, and spins to see that Raven has crumpled. "Raven!" he cries, looking down.

"This... is going to ruin my day..." Raven grumbles, looking down at herself.

Robin gives a small sigh of relief- she is, at least, alive. Raven slowly reaches over and picks up her gun, and begins firing back. As gunfire rings out, Robin ducks to the side. "Where did she get you?"

"The leg," Raven mutters. "This will be a problem..."

As Robin struggles to lift Terra and Aqualad over his shoulders, the radio suddenly crackles back to life. He hears a strain of horrible singing over it. Abandoning his current task, he rushes over to it. "Tim!" he cries. "Tim!"

"Robin!" comes Tim's voice. "What's going on?!"

"Can't explain!" Robin says quickly. "No time! We found Terra and Aqualad! Raven's been shot!" Another gunshot goes off, landing only a few inches from Robin's head. "You have to meet us at the bottom of the staircase! Hurry! The bottom of the staircase!"

Unfortunately, as he speaks, another shot hits the radio, effectively destroying it. Another shot goes off, this time from Raven, and there's a cry from whoever is shooting at them. After a few moments of silence, Raven and Robin look at each other.

"Where... did she get you?" Robin asks.

"My leg," Raven mutters, forcing herself to her feet. As she stands, Robin sees a bloody wound on her upper leg where the bullet no doubt penetrated. "I'm fine," she says immediately. She reaches down and throws Terra over her shoulder again. "Come on, let's get to the staircase..."

There is no doubt in many analysts minds that, had Raven not been a superhero used to pain, she would have been unable to achieve such a feat- though, of course, it later turns out to not have been the best idea anyways. However, Robin, recognizing that he'd be unable to talk her out of it, concedes, and they proceed to continue down the halls, following the fishing line.

XXXX

It takes much less time to get to the staircase than it took to get there. Just as with why the staircase seemingly shrunk, there is much theory as to why this is. The most prevalent is that the hallways somewhat reflect the psyches of whoever is in it- the initial explorers had no idea how long the staircase might be, or even if it had a definite bottom, and thus, the staircase reflected this by being extraordinarily long. When Robin and Raven descended, however, they were certain of their destination, and when one is sure of where they're going, the distance often seems shorter- a difference that the staircase reflected by shrinking. The theory often goes that the trip back to the staircase, a definite destination, led to a quicker trip than wandering to an unknown location with the vague goal of finding the lost explorers.

At any rate, when they finally arrive, Robin gives a look of surprise, but any further comment on the matter is extinguished when Raven notes, a certain amount of disappointment in her voice, that the room is empty- there is no Tim waiting there for them.

"He's not here," she says, sounding extremely off-put. "He didn't come."

Robin is quite obviously disappointed as well, but he swiftly masks this disappointment with anger. "No-" he says, his brow furrowing, "-it's my fault. I expected too much of him. This is what Tim does. He lets you down."

...

...

...

...

Which is exactly when a rope hits the ground.

Both Robin and Raven turn to stare at the rope. A small message is taped to the end, and as Robin quickly opens it and begins to read, a smile crosses his face. When Tim had failed to descend the staircase, he had rushed back to the _**tower**_ proper, and then proceeded to rush out to the store and purchase a very long rope, as well as a pulley device to hang over the banister. As he reads, the other end of the rope hits the ground as well- it is attached to a harness.

Tim may not have been able to meet them at the staircase's bottom, but his solution is even better.

"Okay," Robin says, turning to Raven. "Come on, help me get Aqualad in this thing."

Raven limps over and helps to buckle Aqualad's unconscious form into the harness. Robin moves to the vacant end of the rope, and, as a precaution, ties it to the end of the banister. A few moments later of pulling rope, and Aqualad has been hoisted away to the top of the steps. A second later, a coin dropped down onto the ground next to them, signifying that Tim had received Aqualad at the top. Some more pulling of rope, and the harness lands next to them.

Next, Raven and Robin work to get Terra's body into the harness. Unfortunately, neither of them can think of a way to soften the blow to Tim, so they simply begin pulling ropes once more to send Terra up to him. The camera never cuts to Tim's reaction to finding a corpse in the harness, so we don't know what he thought, but nevertheless, a few moments later, a second coin clatters down next to them, signifying that Terra, too, has been received. The harness is then returned. Robin and Raven look at each other for a moment. Finally, Robin speaks first. "Alright, you go first," he says. Raven opens her mouth in protest, but Robin raises his hand. "There's no point arguing. You're hurt, I'm not. You need to get up there first. There's nothing more to say."

Raven still doesn't look happy about it, but she finally concedes the point, drawing the harness around her and buckling it up. Robin moves over to the rope tied to the banister and begins pulling.

It is, initially, slow going. But suddenly, Raven begins to rise quicker. This is strange, as Robin is actually having more difficult time pulling than he was before. And yet, even as it becomes harder for him to pull, Raven is continuing to accelerate upwards. Robin looks up in confusion, even letting go of the rope as he steps back to observe. Even after he lets go, Raven continues to streak upwards, the rope pulling her on. And, at this point, the cause becomes clear. The stairs are stretching above him, the staircase growing longer and longer, stretching out to its original length. Eventually, Raven disappears into the darkness. Like with Tim, the camera never captures her reaction to all this, and we can only watch Robin's face as horror spreads across it as he realizes what this all means.

Finally, the rope grows taut.

And then

it finally

s

n

a

p

s.

_XXXX_

Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames will be used to not burn the rope, Gamer4 out.


	16. Exploration 4: The Jinx Tapes

Gamer4 in. I have very little to say, so let's jump in.

Disclaimer: I have finished Xenosaga, and moved on to Xenogears. I'm better at it, but only very slightly.

Chapter XVI

Exploration #4: The Jinx Tapes

Arella Roth was hardly an ordinary woman to begin with. Maybe she had been, at some undefined point in the past, but that changed when she moved to Azarath and had a child with what essentially amounted to the Devil. Her relationship with her daughter was carried out almost entirely through letters nowadays. However, at the time, it wasn't until later that she had stepped out of the norm so much that she felt the need to start filming herself at all times, so everything we know about how she became involved with the _**tower**_, we know from interviews she gave after the fact, some of which were included in the special edition of the film released by the Titans.

"I thought it was an ordinary day," she begins by saying in one. "I know that is a common line, but it really is true. It started after I received a letter from my daughter, down on earth. For the most part, even it was normal, assuring me that everything was fine, there was nothing special, and so on. However, I couldn't help feeling uneasy as I read it. And when I turned it over, I understood why. The back of her letter was covered by a very unpleasant drawing- the center of the paper was covered by a large black square, covered so thoroughly that not a single speck of the white paper beneath showed through. And there were... creatures drawn in the margins." She shudders as she recalls them. "I know that, given what I have seen, it may seem strange to be disturbed by such things, but they truly frightened me."

While it is readily apparent already, Arella was no psychologist. However, it didn't take a psychologist to see that something was wrong with her daughter, something that she was fully unwilling to talk about. This was something that hadn't happened for several years, since she'd successfully sent her father back to a separate dimension. So, in a moment of wild abandon, Arella decided to visit earth once more, and the _**tower**_ where her daughter lived, to see what was happening, and see if she could render any assistance.

XXXX

However, things change when she actually arrives at the _**tower**_. She stands in front of the doors. Soon enough, they open up, revealing a young man with green skin. "Wh-" he stutters, looking up. For some reason, he seems thoroughly shaken. "What is it?"

"Is Raven here?" Arella asks. "I wanted to stop by and see if anything was the matter..."

"Well, I'm not sure-" the young man seems to be trying to talk himself into something. Finally, he says, "Yeah, something's the matter. Actually, maybe you can help, come on."

And with that, he turns and dashes off into the building. Arella slowly follows after him, the doors shutting behind her.

As she goes through the hallways, she is briefly distracted as she passes the room with her daughter's name on it. Assuming this is where she'll be, she moves forward, and the door slides open for her, causing her to step back with a gasp as she sees what we have seen already- the entirety of the room is covered with those drawings, with the black square in the center growing larger and larger, until it envelopes the entirety of the paper.

"She's not in there!" the young man who let her in says urgently, trying to lead her forward. "She's in here!"

Turning, Arella follows the green boy down another hallway, until they finally arrive in the living room.

The cameras perfectly capture the look of absolute shock and horror that covers her face as she looks in. The living room is in chaos. Raven is leaning back on the couch, bleeding from a wound in her leg. In the kitchen, an unconscious young man in blue is bleeding out over the tiling. Nearby is a young woman with blond hair, with a wound in the forehead, and quite clearly dead. A young African-American, half-robot man is rushing between Raven and the man in blue. Inevitably, Arella's eyes flick towards the doorway, and she sees the root of all this trouble, the dreaded hallway, stretching out ten feet that shouldn't be there.

The rest of her tale can be grasped from continued interviews. "There are some situations," she states, "that you can't know what you'll do until you've been in that situation yourself. I found myself paralyzed, unable to move. Finally, I simply left. There was... nothing I could do..." Here, she looks away, her eyes downcast in... guilt? Shame? Simple sorrow?

We would go further into this segment, but plenty of analysts have torn into it already.

XXXX

The next shot in the film is the last we'd see of Robin for a while. He is standing at the bottom of the staircase, just after it has finished its expanding. He is staring, horror-struck, at the long set of steps. The timestamp shows that it has been several minutes since the last shot, when the stairs began to stretch. Finally, Robin shakes his head. "No sense waiting around here much longer," he mutters. "It won't make the trip up any easier..."

However, as he turns towards the bottom of the staircase, he is distracted by a clinking noise. He turns and finds that another coin has hit the ground next to him. For a moment, his eyes widen as he takes in the implications of that coin, and how long it took to hit the ground. However, there is resolve in his eyes- he is determined that he _will _return to the main _**tower**_, regardless of what it takes.

XXXX

The film then cuts back to the living room, as Cyborg, Beastboy, and Starfire sit in the living room, staring anxiously at the door. Finally, it opens, and out comes Tim, carrying Aqualad over his shoulder. Tim has a look of shock on his face, and is silent as he carries Aqualad over to the kitchen, and deposits him in a chair. For a moment, he sits in a chair nearby, staring almost blankly at the table in front of him, not really seeing it at all.

"What- what has happened to Aqualad?" Starfire asks, jumping up in a panic. "Why does he not speak?"

Tim is resolutely silent, not even seeming to hear her.

"Tim?" Starfire asks tentatively. "Why- why do _you _not speak?"

A grunting noise comes from the hallway, and Raven comes out, limping heavily, carrying Terra's corpse over her shoulder. Beastboy's face crumples as he sees Terra's limp form. "What... what's wrong with her?" he asks.

Raven wordlessly makes her way to the kitchen and unceremoniously drops Terra into a chair next to Aqualad, where she slumps onto the table. It is only when Raven limps over to the couch that she finally speaks. "She's... dead," she mutters, pulling up her robes to reveal the bullet wound in her leg. "Cyborg..." she groans. "Take care of Aqualad. He's been shot, too, but he's still alive."

Beastboy lets out a strangled cry, rushing over to Terra's body. Cyborg's good eye widens. Starfire is greatly taken aback as well, but as her eyes flick around, she notes that someone else is missing who should be present. "And... what of Robin?" she asks. "Where is he?"

For a moment, neither Raven nor Tim answers. Starfire's eyes flick back and forth. Finally, Raven speaks, very slowly. "Star... Robin... fell behind..."

Starfire's eyes widen, accompanied by a gasp. She turns to the hallway, and leaps towards it. It takes Tim, suddenly rising and reacting to something for the first time since he came out of the hallway, Cyborg, and Raven, jumping up in spite of her injured leg, all working together, to successfully hold her back.

"NO!" Starfire cries, struggling to get to the hallway. "HE- IS NOT- GONE! WE MUST GO IN AFTER HIM!"

"Wait, Star!" Cyborg grunts, struggling to hold her back. "We can't just go rushing in there! We need a plan! And we need to... take care of Aqualad and Raven!"

Finally, after a great deal of struggling, Starfire seems to calm down a bit, and she moves shakily over to the kitchen, where she collapses onto the table in front of her. Tim stands there for a moment, looking around. Finally, he speaks, directing his voice at Cyborg. "Can you take care of things here?" he asks, his voice sounding hollow.

"Yeah," Cyborg nods. "You going somewhere?"

"I've got to... pick up a few things," Tim mutters. Without any further words, he leaves the room.

It's not long after he's left that the doorbell goes off, and Beastboy, who had, up to that point, been crying over Terra, rises and heads out of the room as well. Cyborg is still rushing between trying to take care of Raven, who's leg's condition seems to be deteriorating, not least due to carrying so much weight for so long after being injured, and Aqualad, who has been unconscious for a great deal of time, not having taken in much water or food during that time. Starfire is motionless as the door opens, and for a very brief moment, a woman who looks very much like an older Raven stands in the door. However, she is only present for a moment before that horrified expression spreads over her face and she disappears.

XXXX

Finally, Cyborg concedes that none of them really have the medical skill to deal with these issues. He picks up a phone nearby and calls the nearest hospital, and explains that they have someone in a very critical condition with them. An hour or so later, Aqualad has been carried out of the _**tower**_, still unconscious. He is never seen again in the film, though his fate is discussed. It is stated that he spent several days in the hospital before finally waking up, and several more before he was fit to leave. When he awakens, he still thinks he is in those hallways, unaware of anything that has happened since his shooting. He returns to the Titans East, and seemingly never discussed the events over in Jump City. It is mentioned that while he made a full physical recovery, he still spends a great deal of time having nightmares, and that he developed such an acute claustrophobia and fear of the dark that he was incapable of sleeping in the dark for several months afterward.

However, the next scene in the movie is of Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Beastboy sitting in the living room after Aqualad is taken away. Cyborg has managed to get the bullet out of Raven's leg, and has applied some medication as best he knows how, and topped it all off with a bandage. Raven is currently on the couch, her leg stretched out on it. Cyborg has taken up the old pacing route around the room, and Starfire and Beastboy are both in the kitchen. Finally, Beastboy speaks. "I'm going to go and... bury her," he says, a strangled sob still in his voice. Nobody makes a motion to deter him or help him as he hoists his old friend over his shoulder and carries her out of the living room.

A moment after he leaves, Tim finally returns, carrying a large bag in his hand. He steps in and heads over to the kitchen, sitting across from Starfire. His voice still remarkably hollow, he asks, "Where are the others?"

Cyborg briefly explains. "We sent Aqualad to the hospital. Beastboy just headed out to bury Terra."

Tim nods. "So that's what he was doing," he mutters.

"What did you go out for?" Raven asks, looking pointedly at the bag. "More supplies?"

"Kind of," Tim mutters, pulling a bottle out of the bag. Now the others understand. Tim pops the bottle open and takes a long drink.

A moment later, Beastboy returns, and, seeing this, heads over to the kitchen and sits next to him, taking a bottle out of the bag for himself. Tim makes no move to stop him.

"So..." Raven grumbles, trying and failing to place weight on her leg, "What's our next move? Jinx and Robin are still in there..."

"I'll go out... to pick up some supplies tomorrow," Tim mutters, taking another swig from the bottle. "We'll need to come up with some sort of plan... but I don't know, with the condition the others were in when we found them..."

A dark silence falls on the group, none of them willing to imagine what condition Jinx might be in even now, or what condition Robin might be in when they find him.

Finally, one by one, the group seems to realize that there's no point just sitting there in the living room. Cyborg slowly gets up and heads out towards his room. After a while of drinking their way through their bottles, Tim and Beastboy stand and leave as well, leaving only Starfire and Raven.

Starfire is the first to speak. "Friend Raven," she says quietly, "Would you mind if... I took the couch tonight?"

Raven gives a small nod, not speaking. Slowly, silently, she rises from the couch, refraining from putting weight on her leg by floating. Wordlessly, she heads out of the door, leaving Starfire alone.

Starfire sits on the couch, a haunted look in her eyes, still flicking towards the door behind which lays the hallway. Slowly, she moves over to it and unlocks it. Just in case.

XXXX

As it turns out, this may have been the best action she could have taken. It is later that night that the camera cuts back in, and we see each of the _**tower**_'s current residents suddenly awaken to a scream from the living room. Raven and Tim both awaken from one of the guest rooms, Cyborg in his room, and Beastboy from Terra's room, and they all dash into the living room, where they see Starfire standing and looking at the door. Standing on the threshold, carrying two bags over his shoulders, looking tired and bedraggled, but still very clearly alive, was Robin.

"Hey... I'm... back?" he says, smiling slightly as he looks around. "Good..." And with no further comment, he falls face forward onto the floor.

The film cuts to showing everyone sitting around Robin's bed in the medical lab. After a while of them caring for him, his eyes creak open.

"Welcome back," Cyborg says, smiling.

"Where... am I?" the young man asks.

"Medical lab. You just came out of the hallway- you looked half dead. What happened to you?"

"Well, I was in there for a couple weeks..."

"A couple weeks?" Beastboy asks, his eyebrows raising. "Dude, it was only about half a day. Tim and Raven got back earlier today."

Tim moves forward. "I think..." he says. "I think time flows differently in that hallway than it does out here. While I was waiting at the top of the stairs, Star called me and said I hadn't called for two days, but by my clock, it was two hours."

Another silence falls. Starfire quickly moves forward. "Please, friend, speak! What happened to you during that time?"

"Nothing much, it was just a really long trek back up the stairs. And even once I got to the top, I got lost in the halls."

"Didn't you have the fishing wire to guide you?" Raven asks.

Robin's face crumples. "No... it was weird... the first time I fell asleep, I woke up, and the wire was... I don't know... worn. It was like something chewed it up when I was asleep. And the next time I slept, it was gone entirely when I woke up."

The silence becomes disturbed, as everyone looks anxiously at each other. What did it all mean?

"Luckily, I started finding some of the rations the others left behind," Robin mutters, putting a hand on his forehead. "They were all torn up, like something had been gnawing at them, but when you're hungry enough, that tends to not matter as much."

"Is that what the second bag is?" Tim asks.

"Second bag?"

"When we found you, you were carrying two bags. One of them was yours, but the other one just had a camera and a few tapes in it."

"Oh," Robin grunts. "That used to have some food in it. I found it on the stairs. I was just walking along, when I started wondering where all Jinx's stuff had gone. As soon as I started wondering that, I tripped over that bag. I think it's the one she was carrying."

Everyone turns to look at the bag, currently sitting on one of the tables nearby. "Do you think..." Beastboy says slowly, "that if we watch the tapes... we'll find out what happened to her?"

"Couldn't hurt..." Robin mutters. "Let's plug it in..."

XXXX

What follows is an extremely difficult part of the movie to watch. Not just because it details Jinx's descent into madness, but also due to it all being shot on her camera. As it goes on, it becomes increasingly difficult to watch as the camera becomes increasingly shaky, jumping around not focusing on any one place for long enough to focus.

As it begins, it seems it is just after Jinx leaves Terra and Aqualad. "Those cowards," she mutters. "Can't they see that none of this will stop until we find whatever it is that's growling? I'll show them... I'll find it..."

A later clip shows her running through the hallways, seemingly chasing something. "Come back here, you coward," she mutters. "Get back here!" The camera catches a flash of blue and blond. Jinx pulls out her gun and fires off a shot. It is only a few moments later that she gets close enough to identify the people she'd just fired at- Terra and Aqualad. The rest from here is history.

Another clip shows her stalking through the hallways once more. "It's here..." she says as she circles a corner. "I know it. I can see it sometimes, sitting just in the dark, just out of sight. It never comes too close, but it never leaves, either. It's following me- no, _stalking _me. I can't ever see exactly what it looks like... a flash of white, those long fingers... it looks human, but at the same time, it isn't..."

As she turns another corner, she suddenly lets out a yelp. Soon, the gun is out and firing. Eventually, a shot is fired that isn't from her gun, and she falls over backwards as a bullet pierces her leg.

For the remainder of the clips, she is limping.

"It's gotten to them," she mutters. "All the others... they've turned. This creature... it doesn't know boundaries. They think that door will stop it?" She gives a strangled laugh. "Nothing can stop it! I'm the only one left... I won't let it win, though... I'll find a way... somehow..."

And, finally, the last clip rolls around. She limps forward, finally rounding a corner, only to see the hallway stretching ahead in front of her. She gives a very defeated-sounding sigh, and limps forward a few feet, until she collapses onto the wall. The camera cuts as it is turned to face her.

She looks terrible. Her hair is disheveled, her leg is bleeding freely, her skin is chalk white- from blood loss or fear, either way is irrelevant. She addresses the camera.

"Aqualad is dead," she mutters. "Terra is dead. I'm fairly certain Robin and Raven are dead, too. I saw the creature... that horrible thing... and it killed them. It found them and tore them apart." A tear forms in the corner of her eye. "What gets me," she says, "is how... _merciless _it was. It was like it was nothing to it. It just tore into them like they were nothing...

"I'm guessing the Titans back at the _**tower**_ will be dead, soon. The only thing holding that creature back is a wooden door. Not enough. Not nearly enough, not when it's torn apart Terra and Aqualad like that. Soon, they'll all be gone. And then it will just be me. I never thought I'd die like this, alone in the dark, the last light to be put out.

"Maybe it's for the best. I don't know if I can live in a world where something like that... _creature_ exists. I don't want to die like they did, though. Torn apart, just bleeding out on the ground... no. I won't let it happen. I won't go like that. I won't give that thing the pleasure it wants. If I'm going, I'm going on my own terms."

And then, she does it. She picks up the gun, fallen next to her. She doesn't point it outwards, at any creature that she sees, but at herself. She places the end of the gun directly into her mouth, and pulls the trigger.

A crack, a bang, and the gun falls to the ground as Jinx goes limp.

Certainly, the tapes could have ended there. The event was certainly horrifying enough to stand on its own. However, the film continues. For a full thirty seconds, the camera continues running, focusing on Jinx's body. And then... it happens.

What happens here is one of the most discussed parts of the movie, and has been torn into by analysts and critics alike.

Up to this point, the scene had been illuminated by a flashlight built into the camera. However, roughly half a minute after Jinx's death, the light begins to fade. Though, perhaps that isn't entirely correct- the light is still going, but it seems like the darkness outside of the flashlight's beam has begun to seep into it. The darkness spreads across the shot, wrapping around Jinx's body, encompassing it, encasing it.

And, just as abruptly as it began, the light returns, just as bright as ever, illuminating... nothing. Where Jinx's body had been just a moment before, there is now only a bare stretch of wall.

A click.

The tape ends.

XXXX

The film returns to the Titans reactions. Each of them is staring at the screen showing the tape in total horror.

Slowly, stutteringly, Robin speaks. "Alright," he says. "Everyone pack up. We're leaving... tonight."

_XXXX_

This is officially the end of the Exploration #4 saga. I know, I said it would be seven chapters. Funny story- or not, as the case is. This chapter was originally two separate chapters- Jinx's tapes weren't supposed to come in until next chapter. However, when I was writing this, I realized I didn't have enough material to really make two separate chapters from these events. Heck, even combining them into one chapter, it's _still_ much shorter than most of my chapters. So, they're one chapter now.

And no, this is not the end of the story. We're a good chunk of the way through, of course, but I would say we're only about 3/4 of the way through. Next chapter: the Titans prepare to leave, but of course, things are never that simple. Tune in next time for the next chapter: Evacuation. See you then. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism is fully welcome, flames are not nearly as helpful, Gamer4 out.


	17. Evacuation

Gamer4 in. All I have to say here is that I sacrificed part of my soul to write this chapter. Let's go on.

Disclaimer: I'm not in the mood for writing one of these right now. Not that I ever am...

Chapter XVII

Evacuation

"Alright. Everyone pack up. We're leaving... tonight."

As Robin gives the command, each of the Titans nods and rises from the television the camera is plugged into and leaves the living room. Starfire and Beastboy leave immediately, but Raven and Cyborg hesitate slightly. Looking at each other and nodding in instant agreement, they act. Raven shuts the door firmly and locks all the locks. She then limps to the window and tosses the keys out into the ocean. Meanwhile, Cyborg makes a show of moving everything within reach in front of the door to those hallways, except for a few chairs from the kitchen. Robin watches all this silently, neither encouraging it nor making any move to stop it. Once this work is done, both Cyborg and Raven head out to their rooms as well.

As they leave, Robin stands and, looking into the kitchen, sees Tim sitting in one of the chairs, the bag he'd brought in previously sitting next to him. He slowly approaches his brother. As he does, Tim takes another bottle out of the bag and opens it up. Robin suddenly moves much quicker, approaching his brother and grabbing the bottle before he can drink. "I thought it was strict prohibition for you?"

"Did I say that?" Tim asks groggily. "I suppose you're right..."

"Come on, you told me you haven't touched a bottle for years now... don't quit on me now!"

Tim stares at him for a second, his eyes slightly unfocused, then he smiles, rises, and dumps the bottle down the sink. "You have a way of convincing people, you know?" As he turns back, he says, "By the way, I want your opinion on something."

"We should really be packing up..." Robin points out.

"Hey, I've been ready to leave for a while now. I was only supposed to stay a few days, remember? But now that... Terra's... you know..."

"What is it?" Robin asks, prompting movement past this painful subject.

"She... came into my room, the night before the Exploration," Tim explains. "And she told me a certain story. Care to guess what it was about?"

The color drained from Robin's face. He quietly mutters something.

"A little louder, I didn't quite hear you."

"...Emma," Robin mutters.

"Right on the money," Tim says. "She said she wanted to get it all out, I was even allowed to write it all down," he continues, producing a notebook from his pocket, "under the condition that I didn't show it to anyone else until she left. And... well, I guess she's done that now..."

Robin's eyes lock on to the notebook. "She told you everything?" he asked, astonished.

Tim gives a very forlorn-looking smile. "Start to finish," he agrees, handing the notebook over. "Dreadful stuff, truly. And I took it all down, just about word for word. But Robin... I really think you should let the others in on it."

"What?" Robin asks, looking up at him in bewilderment.

"I'm serious," Tim says, raising his hands. "It's a terrible thing, I agree, but you don't have to bear it alone. If you don't mind me saying, you've always had this thing about... trying to... how do I put it? What I'm trying to say is, you've always had a bit of a 'loner complex.' You always want to do this whole lone gunslinger thing, but you don't have to stand alone, it's unnecessary."

Robin turns away, his eyes downcast. "You can say that, even knowing what happened?"

"Especially knowing what happened," Tim affirms. "I've been here for a few weeks, a month at the most, I kinda lost track while I was hitting the booze there. But in that time, you and your friends have welcomed me in, treating me like family they've known all their lives. I can't imagine they'd shun you over this. They'd understand, and they'd help you carry the burden. You know, the funny thing about burdens is, they're much lighter when others are helping you to carry them, and you've got four volunteers, right here in this _**tower**_. All you have to do is let them in."

Robin gives a small smile to the ground. "I don't believe this... my kid brother, who I always used to save, and he's drunk, and _he's _the one lecturing _me_."

Tim laughs. "Hey, now," he says in mock indignation. "I'm not _that_ drunk!" As he speaks, he takes a step or two forward, and stumbles to the ground. Laughing even harder, he says, "Well, okay, maybe I am."

Robin laughs as well as he moves forward to lift his brother up over his shoulder. "This is why you went on prohibition- you should know by now that you can't hold your liquor."

"Hey, at least I've always got the Drunks' best friend," Tim points out, his 'joke-telling' smile crossing his face. "You know what a drunk's best friend is, right?"

"The floor," Robin says simply. "Try a joke I haven't heard before."

Heedless, Tim presses on. "And you know why, right?"

Sighing, Robin answers, "It's always there for you."

"Exactly," Tim smiles. "No matter what, the floor is always there for you. I should know- you're my personal floor, Robin."

This heartwarming scene is broken up as a pool of shadow forms on the floor, grows in size, and eventually forms into Raven. "Am I... interrupting something?" she asks, her eyebrows raised as she sees the two brothers.

Robin and Tim look from their position in the kitchen, with Tim still leaning heavily on Robin's shoulders, to Raven's look of bemusement, and they simply burst out laughing, making Raven even more confused.

As he wipes a tear from his eye, Robin chokes out, "So... you're finished packing, Rae?"

"It didn't take that long," Raven shrugs. "I just put it all in Nevermore, so my whole bag is just this." As she speaks, she holds up an ornate hand-mirror.

Tim stares for a moment. "Do I want to-" he starts.

"No, no you don't," Robin interrupts. This prompts some more laughter between the two brothers, with Raven still staring on in increasing bewilderment. Finally, Tim forces himself to stand on his own.

"Alright," he says. "I'll head over to the guest room and grab my bag. I mean, it's all packed, but that doesn't mean much if I don't have it."

Robin, still smiling a little, stands up. "I've got a few things of my own to grab," he says, and the two brothers head out into the hallway, leaving Raven to pull out a chair from the kitchen and take a seat in the living room, quietly waiting for the others to finish.

XXXX

And this is when- pardon the language, but there's simply no other way to put it- everything goes to Hell.

XXXX

It starts in Starfire's room. She is holding her suitcase of Tameranian make, meaning it's a strange cross of suitcase crossed with a vacuum cleaner crossed with a backpack. The body is connected to a tube- or possibly a trunk- that vacuums the objects she is packing, then folds into a strap for her to carry it over her shoulder. She initially focuses on her clothing, not entirely certain what she'll need, never having really contemplated the necessity of leaving the _**tower**_, quite possibly for good. She is moving much more solemnly than she typically does, still not quite able to grasp all that has happened, when the floor seems to abruptly lurch, and Starfire keels over. Returning to her feet, she looks around with confusion on her face, wondering what has happened, when it happens again- the floor quickly tilts underneath her feet before abruptly returning to normal, sending Starfire faceplanting into the floor once more. Looking around, she gives a gasp of horror- her room has suddenly transformed into a moving, hostile force. The walls and ceiling are contorting around, tilting, bending, warping, and changing shape.

Looking around in horror, her eyes fall on Silky, calmly making his way through the doorway of her bathroom. As he is making his way across the threshold, the door suddenly starts to collapse on the poor larvae. Starfire, thinking quickly, does the only thing that it seems she can do, and vacuums her pet maggot up, seconds before the portal collapses into nothing. A roar sounds through her room, as if in displeasure that the larvae had escaped. Starfire jumps to her feet, but finds herself unable to fly. Spinning around, she turns to face the doorway, which is alternately swelling and collapsing. Doing her best to time it, she manages to leap out of it and into the _**tower**_'s main hallway when it's in the middle of growing.

Things are hardly better on the outside. The lights above are flickering due to the strain on the wires, and just as in her room, the walls, ceilings, and floors are heaving and twisting and warping, nothing constant.

XXXX

Robin is in his room, throwing things into a couple of duffle bags. The last item he picks up is a newspaper clipping that seems to be roughly a year old. His eyes soften when they fall on it, and he roughly stuffs it in his pocket. Suddenly, he hears a scream from out in the hallway, and charges out into it to see the chaos going on. Starfire and Beastboy have clambered out into the hallway, and are currently struggling to keep their footing on the violently thrashing floor.

"What the-" he gasps, his eyes widening.

"Friend Robin!" Starfire cries, an arm lashing out as she speaks to grab hold of her flailing suitcase. "I cannot fly!"

"And I can't morph!" Beastboy cries out, panic in his eyes as he slides against the wall with a crash.

Though he is clearly shocked, Robin does his best to slip into his normal leader personality, making calm decisions. "Alright!" he says. "Everyone get down to the garage, put your stuff in the T-Car!"

"Can we be sure the garage is safe?!" Beastboy cries out.

Robin's words choke in his throat. "It... it is!" he says firmly, hoping he sounded more convincing than he felt. "It has to be! Just get down there, and when Cyborg gets down there, he can start the car and get it up to ground level!"

Beastboy and Starfire still look terrified, but they nod, and, given the lack of any better plans, they make their way towards the stairs, sensing that taking the elevator might not be the best in this situation. As they approach the door to the stairwell, the whole hallway suddenly flips on its side, leaving them struggling to climb up to a door that had previously been on the walls. Starfire calls on her strength to throw Beastboy up, just as the hall contorts again, and the door flips around to the ground, and Starfire tumbles in after him, only to land safely on the floor on the other side of the threshold. Not wasting time wondering how such a thing was possible, she and the green changeling rush down the stairs, which are currently normal- currently.

Back in the _**tower**_'s main hallway, Robin spins around to look at Cyborg's door. Surely the mechanical Titan has noticed what's going on by now? As he begins to approach his door, another door appears off to the side, and Tim comes bursting out of it. "Bro!" he cries. "What's going on here? My room just starting heaving like an old sailing ship!"

"Everyone else's, too," Robin says grimly. "We need Cyborg! Come on!"

The two struggle through the twisting hallway to Cyborg's room. The door is twisting in its frame, eventually coming to resemble a twisted gum wrapper. Robin and Tim work together to wrench it out of its frame, and leap into the room inside.

"Cyborg!" Robin cries, looking around for him. The inside of this room, too, has lost any connection to the normal laws of physics. All of Cyborg's various devices are tumbling around a swaying, contorting room, as the appliances that are nailed down, such as Cyborg's large computer, are ground to mechanical mush by the walls.

"Found him!" Tim cries from the other end of the room. He is trying to bend over, but the state the room is in is making this difficult. "I think he's unconscious or something..."

Robin stares over in shock. Cyborg's mechanical half seems to have powered down, leaving the young man immobile on the ground. His good eye is closed, and his mechanical one is dark.

"Starfire couldn't fly," Robin mutters to himself, "and Beastboy couldn't morph. Whatever's causing that must have shut Cyborg down!"

"We gonna try and figure out _why _he's like this, or are we gonna _do _something about it?!" Tim cries. "Come on, grab a shoulder!" Together, the two young men lift the third over their shoulders, and, straining under the weight, make their way to the door. Luckily, the doorway happens to expand as they make their way for it, making their egress from the room that much easier. They then fight their way over to the stairs and manage to fall through the door as it is on the walls, where it belongs. The stairs, they are relieved to see, are, for the moment, normal. They quickly lug their mechanical friend down the stairs and towards the garage.

As soon as he is out of the main hallway, Cyborg's cybernetic eye flickers into life again, and his good eye opens. "Wh- what's goin' on?" he asks, looking around.

"The _**tower**_'s gone nuts!" Robin explains. "It's like the effects of the labyrinth have spread into the main _**tower**_!"

No one pauses to note the abrupt shift with which Robin has gone from referring to the anomaly as a hallway to a labyrinth. Interestingly enough, not once throughout the rest of the film does anyone refer to it as a hallway- purely as a or the Labyrinth.

Cyborg's eyes widen. "I... I kinda remember... what are we doing?"

"I already sent Starfire and Beastboy down to the garage," Robin explains quickly. "And we're lugging you down-"

Suddenly, all three teenagers stop dead in their tracks and stare at each other with nothing but horror in their eyes. Finally, Cyborg gives voice to the thought on all their minds: "And... what about Raven?"

Robin and Tim stare at each other, then turn to stare back up the stairwell. Finally, Robin says, "Cyborg, can you walk?"

"I think I could walk with just one person supporting me at this point," Cyborg says. "I'm still booting up."

"Tim," Robin says quickly, "carry Cyborg down into the garage. He's the only one who can drive the T-Car. When you get behind the wheel," he continues, directing his words to Cyborg now, "Drive up to the island, to make sure this doesn't get to you. Me and Raven'll meet you out there."

For a moment, Cyborg and Tim stare wordlessly at their leader and brother, respectively. However, neither of them make any attempt to contradict him. Cyborg shifts himself so that his weight is now distributed between himself and Tim, and they continue down the stairs. Robin doesn't waste a moment after sending them off to sprint back up the stairs.

It is with a certain amount of reluctance that he enters the hallway again, throwing himself into the weirdness once more. But with Raven's life at stake, he doesn't hesitate at all. He leaps into the hall, and begins sprinting down it, moving as quickly as he can through the contortions, making his way towards the living room. However, halfway down the hall, part of the wall suddenly extends out into the hall, slamming him into the wall opposite. As he grunts with the impact, his shoulder is pincered between the two walls, and with a nasty crack, he hears his arm break. Heedless, running through the pain, he works his way to the door to the living room, where a horrible sight meets his eyes.

XXXX

Meanwhile, Starfire and Beastboy finally arrive in the garage, which, mercifully, still seems unaffected. They immediately drop their things in the trunk and sit themselves in their customary positions in the backseat. Not long after they sit, Tim and Cyborg make their way down, Cyborg leaning on Tim for support, for some reason.

"Friend Cyborg, why do you require the support of Friend Tim?" Starfire asks.

"Whatever's shutting down your guys's powers worked on my machine parts, too," Cyborg explains. "Come on, let's get in... we gotta meet Robin up on the island."

"We are not waiting for him here?" Starfire asks, confused.

"No, he had to go back," Tim explains. "We're going to meet him up on the island."

"Why did he have to go back?" Beastboy asks, jumping up urgently.

Cyborg and Tim throw nervous glances at each other, then Tim explains. "Raven's still up in the living room"

Shocked, both Starfire and Beastboy leap to their feet. Tim and Cyborg manage to catch Starfire, Cyborg saying, "Don't worry, it's alright, Robin's got-"

The words have nothing on Beastboy, however, who charges past them and into the stairwell, where he shoot up the stairs with all the speed of a cheetah.

"Beastboy! Wait!" Tim cries, to no effect. Sighing, he turns to Cyborg and Starfire. "Star, can you wait here?"

"Yes," Starfire says reluctantly. "It would only burden everyone if we were all to return into the _**tower**_..."

"Good," Tim says distractedly. "Cyborg, drive the car up to the island. Me, Robin, Raven, and Beastboy'll meet you there."

"Roger," Cyborg nods, leaping behind the T-Car's wheel. Starfire sits behind him. With them both inside, Cyborg fires up the car and steers out of the garage. None of this is seen by Tim, who, as soon as they'd agreed, had shot up the stairs after Beastboy.

XXXX

To explain what Robin witnessed in the living room, one must view the anomaly from Raven's point of view.

Shortly after she takes her seat in the living room, and when Robin and Tim have left, she hears a faint tapping. Unlike the tapping that beckoned Tim, Robin, and herself into the Labyrinth, this tapping has no particular rhythm. It does, however, have a clear source- the other side of the doorway she had just locked up, and which had then been blockaded by Cyborg. She turns her chair to face this hallway, but aside from this, does her best to ignore the tapping. She knows that, whatever may be on the opposite side of that door, it isn't something she wants to see. However, she must be prepared if it somehow breaks the door down.

Tension builds in her eyes as the tapping grows more insistent. Soon, it is as though someone on the other side is knocking. The knocking increases in volume and intensity as she continues to resolutely ignore it. She knows there is no chance there is someone she wants to see on the other side... Terra had been taken out of the hallway and buried, and Aqualad was currently in the hospital. And Jinx... Jinx was supposed to be dead... but what if... after all, other things had returned where they shouldn't have...

Any thoughts she might have had about opening the door disappear as the knocking becomes an all-out banging by whatever is behind the door. Behind the banging, she can hear the growling, growing louder and louder. She stares at the spot on the wall currently hidden behind furniture in horror. Even if whatever that creature is was Jinx at one point, it most certainly is not Jinx anymore. Finally, Raven decides that the best thing to do at this juncture would be to remove herself from the living room. She stands, intending to levitate, but she finds herself unable to, crashing onto her legs. Her wounded leg crumples beneath her, leaving her on the ground, gasping in pain. She struggles to get up, but finds herself unable to- she cannot levitate, and her leg will simply not support her weight. She begins struggling to crawl over to the kitchen, grabbing any handholds she can. Even as she does so, the growling and banging increases in volume.

Abruptly, something happens that she could never have predicted or accounted for- the floor begins to tilt. She struggles, and manages to grab on to part of the banister separating the kitchen from the living room, and looks down in horror.

First, a brief talk about what she _should have _seen. If the floor was tilting in that particular room in the _**tower**_ (not that there is any reason it should have been), it would normally open out to the island below, showing Raven a multiple-story drop which would be, in her weakened state, unable to levitate, her death. However, this is not what she saw.

As the gap between the walls and the tilting floor increased, she saw a vast chasm of blackness open up before her. There is nothing within it- no light, no anything. The tilting is towards the door, causing the furniture to slide backwards into the chasm, disappearing into nothingness. And as this was happening, the banging and growling continued, only growing louder with each passing second, until the door suddenly crashed open.

Raven reluctantly keeps her eyes open, curiosity outweighing her terror. At some level, she wants to see what secrets this door has been concealing. However, she can see no creature of any kind that could have been causing the knocking. Instead, there is nothing. And nothing was coming out of the doorway. Nothing was spreading rapidly across the living room. It resembled darkness. The walls of the living room were shifting to resemble the walls of the Labyrinth- cold stone, pure black, occasional streaks of grey. It resembled ink spilling across a page.

It is at this juncture that the door above Raven opens and Robin enters. His eyes widen at what he is seeing on the other side. Raven looks up. As she does, the banister she is clinging to begins to crumble. Wasting no time, Robin leaps forward, grabbing onto the part of the banister remaining and reaching out with his other arm to grab Raven's. As later interviews would point out, he did this all with one of his arms being broken, and several speculate that he wouldn't have managed it if it weren't for his status as a superhero.

However, things still don't look good, as now Robin is clinging to the banister, and the floor is still tilted, with darkness still spreading across the _**tower**_'s walls.

"Hey!" comes a voice, and Robin and Raven both look up to see Beastboy and Tim standing at the door's edge. Tim holds out his hand as far as he can, but it is still not nearly far enough. Robin looks up, then comes to an insane decision: taking advantage of the fact that it is an incline, rather than a steep drop, he lets go of the banister. As he and Raven begin to slide down, he reaches into his utility belt and pulls out his grappling hook. He fires it upwards, and Tim manages to catch it around his arm. He begins to heave, and Beastboy joins in as well. Together, the two manage to haul up the two birds into the hallway.

"Thanks," Robin and Raven say in unison.

"Save it," Tim says quickly. "We have to get out of here."

The four rapidly head for the stairs.

"Are we going to the garage?" Raven asks.

"No, we're meeting Star and Cy in the T-Car on the island," Robin quickly explains. The four head downstairs as quickly as they can, with Robin carrying Raven over his shoulder in the fireman's carry.

Finally, they arrive in the entrance hall of the _**tower**_. The hall seems much longer than normal as the three sprint across it (Raven still being carried.) They are halfway across when this hallway begins contorting as well. The floor heaves and the walls twist and turn. The four increase their pace, but Tim and Beastboy, neither of whom have the amount of stamina Robin has, begin to fall behind. Robin just manages to get to the door when he hears a scream behind him. "Robin!" Raven cries, prompting the leading Titan to spin around.

The walls have become hostile once more, rushing out and attacking the young changeling. Beastboy is struggling to escape, but his leg is firmly stuck.

Robin turns around. "You should be able to levitate once you're out of here," he said quickly, rushing to the door and throwing Raven out. "Get to the car!"

Raven is somewhat indignant, but also understands that it is what needed to be done. Finding her ability to levitate restored, she makes her way out into the darkness, until she finds the headlights of the T-Car.

Back in the hallway, Robin is rushing back towards where Beastboy and Tim are struggling with Beastboy's leg. Finally, with a great pull from Tim, Beastboy slides out. With this, Tim turns and, with all his strength, tosses Beastboy as far as he can across the hallway. Combining Beastboy's relative lightness and Tim's not-inconsiderable upper body strength from years as a construction worker, Beastboy finds himself not too far from the exit. He rushes out and turns to watch the others continue making their way across the heaving hall.

Robin, who is very near to him, turns to watch his brother make his way down the hall. He remains in the _**tower**_ lest a situation arise wherein Tim needs his help. Such a situation arises as the two brothers realize that Tim is making no progress, despite him sprinting as fast as he can. It seems that for every step he takes, the floor moves, taking him a step backwards.

"Come on, Tim!" Robin cries, stepping forward.

"No, Robin, don't come here!" Tim cries, holding out his hand. As if on cue, the walls rush out once more, slamming into his arm. With a nasty crack, we hear his arm break. The walls retreat again. Tim nearly collapses, looking at his crushed arm. "Ah, nah," he says, looking up at Robin with a sad sort of smile on his face. "This is gonna ruin my whole day."

Robin continues to make his way out into the hall, trying to reach his brother, but just like with Tim, every time he takes a step forward, he finds himself back where he started. And then, it happens.

Beneath Tim, the floor opens up like a trapdoor. Within the hole is nothing but darkness. Tim throws only the briefest glance up at his brother before tumbling into the hole, which, as soon as it has claimed its victim, closes up. Robin lets out a desperate cry, leaping forward at the floor where his brother had been standing just a moment before. Beastboy reels back, horror and despair written into every inch of his face.

XXXX

A few moments later, according to the camera built into Cyborg's eye, Robin and Beastboy come trudging across the island towards the T-Car, both looking as though someone had died. Neither of them speak- neither of them has any words for what they have just seen. They silently enter the T-Car, and a moment later, the car headed down to the tunnel that would take it off the island and away from the _**tower**_.

_XXXX_

Between me finishing Xenogears (and thus, Xeno altogether) and me being forced to write this chapter, I'm kind of feeling down now. It was kind of painful writing all of Tim's lines, knowing that this was coming up. Let's all take a moment of silence now, for the one known as Tim.

...

...

...

...

However, with Tim's sacrifice comes the promise that the others will live. And indeed, even this is not the end of the story. Next chapter, Robin and Cyborg continue the investigation (though without returning to the _**tower**_) in A Search for Answers. See you then. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames are undue in such a solemn chapter, Gamer4 out.


	18. A Search for Answers

Gamer4 in. Perhaps I should note that we've only got 4 or 5 chapters left in this particular story. This is a heads-up. Also, in regards to what I said a few chapters earlier, about discussing Johnny's story, the half of the book I'm not covering... I think I'll give it a quick summary in the last chapter. So, yeah, for now, let's just continue.

Disclaimer: I want to go back and play Xenosaga again, see if it makes more sense on a second playthrough.

Chapter XVIII

A Search for Answers

When the film fades in once more, it is made clear that a great deal of time has passed. The film, whether for better or worse, has chosen to pass over the Titans' reactions to Tim's death, and proceeded several weeks down the line. The door to an apartment opens, and Robin enters, followed by Cyborg. Their conversation makes it clear that Robin has fallen out of contact with the others a great deal. "I still think we could find a new place to live," Cyborg says as he steps over the threshold. "Just 'cause we can't go back to the _**tower**_ doesn't mean we can't find somewhere else."

"No," Robin says. "Not yet. Not until we find out what went wrong with the _**tower**_. I won't take the risk that something like that happens again."

Together, the two of them cross the room and take a seat on a nearby sofa. Cyborg looks at his friend with no small degree of concern in his eyes. "You're not thinking of going back there, are you?"

Robin's response is immediate. "No. We're not going back there. Never." Sighing when Cyborg doesn't stop looking suspicious, Robin decides to try another tactic: changing the subject. "So, how are the others?"

"We've all moved in together," Cyborg says. Clearly unwilling to drop their original topic, he adds, "And we were all wondering when you're going to be joining us."

Robin sighs again. "And how are they?" he repeats.

"Beastboy's been playing even more video games than usual lately. I think he seems a little out of it- had a big ol' breakfast of bacon the other day, and he didn't say a thing. Raven's leg's worse- her doctor's saying she put too much pressure on it right after a serious injury like that. She might not be able to walk normally again. She's been in more contact with her mother, and apparently, _she's _been recording herself around her home. And Star's claustrophobia's only gotten worse. On top of all that, we can't understand why you're distancing yourself from us."

Robin's face has taken on a very familiar expression at this point: he is determined, serious, down-to-business. "I can't afford to be distracted now, Cy," he says. "I'm not going to rest until I find out what happened to our _**tower**_, so we can make sure it never happens again."

Cyborg looks at him for a second or two, then seems to give it up as a lost cause. Shrugging, he says, "Well, I'd love to know what your next step is. We can't run any more explorations without going back to the _**tower**_\- and we've already said that's not an option..."

Robin sits at the table for a moment, his head in his hands, trying to block out any outside distractions. Suddenly, he looks up and brings his hands down on the table. "That's it!" he says.

"What's it?" Cyborg asks, nonplused.

"The explorations! They brought back all we need!"

"...I don't see what you're-"

"The samples, Cyborg!" Robin jumps to his feet. "All through the explorations, Terra was stopping to take samples out of the walls! If we get those analyzed, it could tell us what we need to know!"

Cyborg looks somewhat skeptical, but he seems to prefer a Robin eager to do something to solve the mystery to the brooding Robin of a few moments before. And, ultimately, what did they really have to lose? "Alright, I know a few scientists who can help us out with this!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Robin says, and in the next few seconds, they both grab their bags and are out of the building.

XXXX

One of the most key points in this scene is one that is frequently discussed among analysts struggling to determine the purpose of one of the film's final sequences, _Exploration #5. _

While more will be said on this later, the key point used by the analysts is when Cyborg lists the symptoms of the Titans who escaped the _**tower**_. While it is discussed more thoroughly later on, it is more or less shown that everyone who even tangentially came into contact with the _**tower**_ during its final weeks had some sort of ill effect. While the most obvious effects, of course, are the deaths of Jinx, Terra, and Tim, it is easy, in mourning them, to forget that those who survived didn't get away without some scars.

Starfire's worsened claustrophobia is discussed, as is her increased fear of the dark- similarly to Aqualad, for weeks after the evacuation, she was incapable of sleeping except in a brightly lit room. Even in these conditions, she would often awaken in the night, screaming at a nameless fear.

Beastboy becomes more socially withdrawn, interacting with others much less. His behavior is sometimes compared to Raven's before the incidents that occurred, except with video games in place of meditation. This newfound lack of interest in social interaction couldn't have come at a worse time for...

Raven, who is cited as actually having developed a need to speak with others. It seems that in the wake of her time in the Labyrinth, she has developed an acute fear of being left alone or abandoned. While she is better at hiding it than some are, she is cited as trying to reach out to others more often than she ever would have before. In addition to this, she periodically awakens in the middle of the night to find herself working on more of those nightmare-pictures.

Her mother, Arella, meanwhile, who only spent a few minutes in the _**tower**_ before leaving and not coming back, only glimpsing the inside of the Labyrinth, has developed an acute paranoia, filming herself at all times, and having increased moments of panic whenever her camera isn't trained on her.

And finally, there is Robin, who has developed many of the above symptoms, and worse. In the wake of leaving the _**tower**_, he has developed an acute insomnia, constantly unable to sleep whether in the light or dark. He would later cite a constant, lingering paranoia, and occasional panic attacks accompanied by increased paranoia, almost to the point of a heart attack on a couple of occasions. He has become so withdrawn from the other Titans that he refuses to even be under the same roof as them, with a great deal of their interaction being done over email or the phone. He later admits to an almost-constant feeling of cold, regardless of the temperature, and, even more so than Arella, he has begun to insist on filming his every move, freaking out when he is unable to do so.

Even more notable than this is the fact that, as Robin began to work on the short that would eventually become _Exploration #4, _and as Starfire, Raven, and Beastboy began work on the segments entitled _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought _and _A Brief History of Who I love,_ these symptoms became much less pronounced, until they disappeared altogether at the time that _Exploration #5_ took place. Make of this what you will. Many analysts and reviewers have.

XXXX

The film next shows Robin and Cyborg entering an elaborate university. For interests of privacy, the name of the university and the people that they speak with therein have been withheld. As they enter a science lab, the person they have contacted for help in analyzing the wall samples turns around and shakes their hand. She is a cheery-looking young woman with long hair dyed green. She bows extravagantly as they enter. "So, what you got there?" she asks, taking the bag with the samples that they offer her. She pulls out a series of test tubes, labeled according to how far into the Labyrinth they were taken. "What are these? Rocks?"

Robin and Cyborg quickly glance at each other. They have already agreed not to tell anyone else about the Labyrinth, lest they attempt to get a closer look and get hurt for it. "Yeah, we found them on one of our missions, and we think that finding out more about them would really help..." Robin says, scratching the back of his head.

"Really?" the young woman says, looking skeptical for a brief moment. "Well, I'll see what I can pull up! See you in... I don't know, an hour or so?"

As she rushes out with the wall samples, Robin turns to Cyborg. "Can we rely on her?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Cyborg says reassuringly. "I know she's a little weird, but ***Name Withheld*** knows what she's doing. One of the best scientists I've ever known!"

Shrugging, Robin takes seat beside his friend.

For a while, they sit there, staring off into space, simply waiting for the young woman to come back with the results.

Cyborg is the one to ultimately break the silence. "You know, I know we agreed not to tell ***Name Withheld*** about what those rocks really are, but I still think we should go public to _some _extent."

"We've been over this," Robin says immediately. "We're not getting anyone else involved. Not after what happened to Terra, Jinx, and Aqualad."

"I know, I know!" Cyborg says, raising his hands. "I'm just saying, it might not hurt to get some professional opinions! I don't know, just... what we did with _The Five-and-a-Half Minute Hallway._ Make a short about the fourth trip down there, show what's up with the _**tower**_, heck, you could even show all the bad things that went down, just so they know it's dangerous, then just find out what people think!"

Robin seems to be mulling this idea over when his eyes suddenly widen. His head lowers a bit, his breathing imperceptibly heavier.

Cyborg, noticing, says, "You alright, there?"

Robin stands. "Yeah, I'm fine," he says quickly. "I'm going out... to the vending machine," he adds. "You want anything?"

"No, I'm good," Cyborg says, staring at his friend uncertainly as Robin quickly leaves the room.

Out in the hallway, Robin collapses against a wall, his breathing growing increasingly heavy and labored-sounding. From there, he slides down to the ground, twitching violently, eventually culminating in a scream that brings Cyborg running out after him. No sooner has Cyborg appeared on-camera than Robin ceases his twitching, and is able to shakily pull himself to his feet.

Cyborg's eyes are full of concern. "Fine, huh?" he says, somewhat reproachfully. "What happened to you?"

"I... don't know..." Robin chokes out, still gaining his breath back. "Just felt... like I was choking... couldn't breath..."

Cyborg only sounds more alarmed at this, but he doesn't have time to push the point as the young woman appears behind them, holding a bag. "Well, I've got your rocks analyzed!" she says cheerfully, not noticing as Robin steadily pulls himself to his feet and puts on a convincing enough show of being just fine. "Want to step into the lab?"

Inside, they gather around a table to hear the final results. "So, what is it?" Cyborg asks curiously. "What do we have here?"

"Well," the young woman says, "I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to say something like, 'Oh, it's so weird, I've never seen rocks like this before, and I've taken it to a bunch of experts, and none of them know either,' right?"

"Is that what you're going to say?" Robin asks, a certain note of desperation in his voice.

"Well, as a matter of fact, this rock is some basic rock you can find anywhere!" the young woman says cheerfully. "Just your ordinary granite! I wouldn't say it was weird at all, except-"

"Except what?" Robin and Cyborg both ask, leaning forward in anticipation.

The young woman chuckles. "Well, it's from a meteorite, if you want to know!"

"A meteorite?"

"Yup! No other explanation! You see, this particular sample-" she pushes forward the sample from a couple feet into the first hallway- "is only a couple hundred years old, that's just the blink of an eye, on a Universal scale, but each sample gets exponentially older!" She moves forward the one from the very end of the hallway, just before the first turn. "This right here predates the dawn of man, and _this_-" just inside the Antechamber-"comes from before life even formed on Earth! Bur _this _one," she continues, bringing out a sample from near the spiral staircase, "is the one that makes me sure it's from a meteorite. It's so old, it predates the creation of our solar system by a few thousand millennia!" Ignoring Robin and Cyborg's shocked expressions, she cheerfully asks, "Where did you say you found these samples? Antarctica?"

XXXX

The film then cuts to Robin and Cyborg returning to what seems to be Robin's apartment. Cyborg seems to be trying to suggest something else. "Well, I don't know," he is shrugging, "what if we try someone else? Maybe someone else will get different results?"

"No point," Robin grumbles, sitting on the sofa. "No matter who we go to, it will be the same thing. I think that place just doesn't want us to understand it..."

Cyborg sits down across from his friend. "Does this mean you're giving up?"

Robin slams his fist down. "No! If we can figure out what happened there, we can stop it from ever happening again! We don't have any choice _but _to keep looking for answers!"

"Hey, I'm all for answers," Cyborg says, raising his hands once more, "I just don't want you killing yourself over them. How about that idea I had earlier? Make a video about Exploration #4, see what other people think? You don't even have to do anything, I can get it to Rae, Star, and BB, we'll go out and ask people, you can keep investigating... whatever."

Robin sighs in frustration. "Yeah. Fine. You do that. Can you log into the computer at the _**tower**_ from here?"

Cyborg shrugs. "I can log into it from anywhere, assuming whatever happened as we were leaving didn't mess with it too much. What do you want?"

"The footage from the security cameras," Robin says, heading over to a nearby computer. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it properly."

XXXX

There is little doubt in many peoples' minds that this signals the origin of _Exploration #4, _the second short produced before the film itself. Though, if the film is to be believed, there was a longer, more detailed, more story-oriented version of _Exploration #4_ that the group produced to show to people they thought might be able to give some insight on the situation, while the version released to the general public was cut down significantly. More will be said on this when we discuss _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought,_ the segment of the film detailing Raven, Starfire, and Beastboy's interviews.

However, the film does show us a part of Robin's work on the short. It is from this that we discover exactly how much Robin has actually been affected by his time in the Labyrinth. He is hard at work on his computer, editing footage together to create the short, when his eyes widen again. His head falls to his desk, and he breaths heavily for a moment or two, before he straightens up, breathing slowly returning to normal. Slowly, he turns his head to face the camera. Sighing, he stands, picking up the camera, and takes a seat on the sofa to speak to the camera directly.

"I... just had a panic attack," he admits, looking very reluctant to talk about it. "This has been happening a lot, since I got out of that... that place. Ever since we escaped... ever since... well, you know...

"It's kind of hard to describe what it feels like... the other day, when Cyborg and I were getting those rocks analyzed... at first, it just felt like... I don't know, you know how you feel when you're sitting in your room, and a cloud goes over the sun? Everything just suddenly gets darker? It was like that, except it didn't actually get darker- everything was still brightly lit. Yeah, like I said, hard to explain. And then, it was a little harder to breathe...

"I'm kicking myself for going out into the hallway now. I thought, at the time, I could deal with it myself... the truth was, I felt like there was something right there in the lab with me. I couldn't see it, but I could tell it was there, not doing anything, just kind of... watching me. And there was the faintest trace of this disgusting smell... I couldn't even tell you what kind of smell it was, just... imagine all the worst smells in the world combined. That's what it was like.

"I headed out into the hallway, like I said, thought I just needed to get out of the room for a second or two... but I should have stayed. There were others in the lab, but in the hallway, there was just me. Me and that smell, and that feeling...

"And suddenly, the smell got a lot more intense. I couldn't breath, it was in my nose, and my mouth... and I could _see _it! Just barely, very faintly, but I saw this big, hulking creature! The thing from the Labyrinth, if there's anything there... I couldn't even tell you what it looked like, that's the weird thing! I was looking right at it, you'd think it would have imprinted itself on my eyes... but then again, it wasn't ever there to begin with...

"Next thing I knew, Cyborg was charging right through where the monster supposedly was, but it wasn't there anymore. I looked around, and I knew it was never there... should have known from the beginning... the camera never caught anything, either... so, I don't know what it is. For the rest of the time that we were in that building, I didn't smell that scent again, I didn't feel any of those feelings, I was fine until we got out. But, of course, it's happened again... and again..."

Robin seems almost on the point of breaking down. "I wonder... I wonder if this is how the others felt, when they were lost in that Labyrinth, knowing they were about to die? Terra... Jinx... Aqualad... Tim... and it's my fault. I know it. I know it now. It's my fault. It's my punishment... it's my punishment, for what I did, last year... and I dragged all my friends down with me." His head sinks down onto the table. Slowly, he reaches into a bag next to him and pulls out two objects. One is the newspaper that he'd gone out of his way to obtain before leaving the _**tower**_, and the other is Tim's old notebook. Slowly, he flicks through the pages until he comes to the pages detailing Emma's story, as told to him by Terra. In a sudden burst of anger, Robin shouts, and begins tearing out the pages, crumpling them up and tossing them in the garbage. He continues doing this until, abruptly, his eyes come down on the head of the next page, where a subtitle of sorts is scrawled. The camera zooms in on it. It is unclear whether this is something Tim wrote on his own time, or part of the story that Terra told him, but it seems to mean a great deal to Robin. This is the point, at least, where he stops ripping out pages and slowly returns to the computer. At the top of the page is the hastily scribbled heading, _The Brother's Story._

XXXX

Cyborg stops by again the next day. Robin looks very depressed, sitting in his sofa. He looks up listlessly as Cyborg enters. "Mind if I come in?" the young man asks. "I did knock..."

"Sure..." Robin mutters, staring blankly off into the distance.

"Have a bad night or something?" Cyborg asks, his eyes on the bags under Robin's.

"Just a little," Robin admits, tilting his head ever so slightly.

"Well," Cyborg says, "I got good news and bad news. I'm just gonna go ahead and give you the bad news first, how about?"

Slowly seeming to come to himself, Robin nods. "Alright," he says.

Cyborg gives a small grimace as he speaks. "I took the samples to a few more scientists. They all agreed with ***Name Withheld***. Granite dating all the way back to older than the solar system. So, no more sense made on that front."

"I didn't have high hopes," Robin mutters.

"On the other hand," Cyborg says, turning to his friend once more, "we've just about finished putting together the interviews we had with a few different sources. They went pretty well, I went along with them and recorded, we had nine different people talk with us about it. Granted, I had to stop Raven from almost killing one of them, but, overall, I think it went pretty well. We should have it ready to roll soon enough."

"Sounds great," Robin says, giving a smile that looks somewhat forced. "Is that all?"

"Just about," Cyborg shrugs. "Oh, Star and I are thinking about tossing in a little extra. We think you'll like it."

"Sure, fine," Robin says, sounding somewhat distracted. "Look, Cyborg," he finally says, "I think I have a new plan of action. I think I know how to figure out what's up with the _**tower**_."

"What is this plan?" Cyborg asks, looking interested. Eye suddenly narrowing in suspicion, he adds, "You aren't planning on going back there, are you?"

"I told you before that I'm never going back to the _**tower**_," Robin says right away. "No, I just have more people to ask, more people to talk to. I might be gone a few months. I need to get my head together..."

"No arguing that," Cyborg admits. "So, what do you want me to say to the others?"

"Just what I said," Robin affirms, nodding his head. "I'll be back after a few months, alright? Just... keep sending me the stuff you were going to send me, I'll take all your footage, put it into this little film we're making..."

"Alright," Cyborg nods. "Well, good to hear you'll at least be in the city now and again. Try and stop by and say 'Hi,' you hear?"

"Will do," Robin says with another somewhat forced smile. "Oh, before you go..."

"Yeah?" Cyborg asks, turning back at the door.

"Take this with you," Robin says, picking up a newspaper from the top of the coffee table.

"A newspaper?" Cyborg asks, looking at it in surprise. "Yeah, sure, I don't see why this is so-" looking at the cover, he gives a laugh. "Oh, I see. A year-old paper... this is the one where they announced Slade's death, isn't it?"

"There you go," Robin says, nodding. "Like I said, I don't need any distractions, and... well, you know... Slade."

"Yeah, I know," Cyborg nods. "Well, see you around."

"See you," Robin says as Cyborg steps out.

XXXX

This particular segment comes to an end as we see Robin on his computer, receiving another several emails. We see that he hasn't quite gotten around to leaving yet, as he still seems relatively unpacked. As he goes through his email, we see that another site up is, of all sites, . The printer next to him is currently churning out pages of fanfiction, reminding the viewers of one of Tim's very first statements: that Robin had (or, apparently, _has_,) a tendency to print out fanfictions so he can read them on the go. Next to this is Tim's notebook, closed and face-down.

As Robin browses through his emails, he comes across two interestingly titled ones: _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought, _and _A Brief History of Who I Love. _The first makes him laugh, giving him a fond smile of nostalgia as he remembers happier times, from before the Titans were torn apart. However, the second video catches him off-guard, but as he watches, it is clear that the effect is less than unpleasant. Slowly, he allows himself a small smile, not quite of humor, but something more. While we don't yet see what the video shows, it is clear that it has made him genuinely happy.

This happiness disappears as he clicks the final email. This final email is another clip from the security cameras, and it is most likely that Cyborg didn't actually review this particular clip, just downloading it from the _**tower**_'s computer and sending it to Robin without a second thought. Enshrined on the clip is the moment in which Aqualad kisses Starfire, and, in a moment of cultural misunderstanding, the alien princess kissed him back. Robin stares blankly at the screen for a few moments. Slowly, he looks around his room. His eyes linger on the bag sitting on his sofa, already packed full of fishing wire, neon markers, and glowsticks. His eyes pass on to the camera sitting, ready and waiting, next to it. He turns his head to the fanfiction that he's just finished printing out. Next to it, his eyes fall on the notebook. Slowly, he picks it up and turns through the pages. His eyes fall on the last line in the notebook, marking the last time his brother's hand had ever, or would ever, go across it. It is a very simple six words: _It's okay. You can go now._

Slowly, Robin stands and picks up a camera separate from the one next to his bag. He sits down in front of the sofa, turns it on, and hits the record button. "Hey, guys. I figure you'll get back here before I do. If you do, and you're watching this, it means..."

_XXXX_

I started playing Eternal Darkness while I was writing this. How fitting is that? Anyways, I don't really have much to say here. For now, I think I'll skip right to my outro: next chapter, we get some brief comic relief in the form of several guest star cameos in _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought, _followed by some more story progression in _A Brief History of Who I Love. _See you guys then! Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism embraced, flames don't get a mention this chapter, Gamer4 out.


	19. ABTOWSHT and ABHOWIL

Gamer4 in. Right off the bat, I want to thank Mark Z. Danielewski (I still hope I'm spelling that right) for including a humorous segment of the book as a break from the horror parts, which gives me the opportunity to relax a bit here and release my inner fanboy with a few guest star cameos (well, nine.) Hopefully, you can recognize and enjoy the cameos to their fullest! If you don't recognize them, hopefully you can still get some comic relief out of them, and if not, then hopefully you can at least enjoy the second part, _History_, which is more story-oriented, if quite a bit shorter, it looks like. Anyways, on with the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Ace Attorney series, the Mario series, Xenosaga, Ranma ½, the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or Harry Potter. Believe it or not, all that _will _be relevant (at least, if you're reading _Transcript_.)

Chapter XIX

Part I.

A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought

Among the most controversial things in the film is the segment known as _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought. _The majority of the controversy comes from the fact that it was excluded from the first copies of the films that were released, not appearing until later versions that are referred to, especially among those who consider the whole thing a hoax, as the "Special Edition." In the original, theatrical release, the segment was referred to but never shown.

The premise of this particular segment is exactly what the film implies: using the tapes that they already had, the Titans put together a shorter version of the film that was ultimately released, made specifically to demonstrate the anomaly that had gripped their home. Many an analyst has agreed that this film is the film's nod to _Exploration #4, _that is, the short released long before the movie was released, though the reactions of the various people interviewed would indicate that it was more complete than the short released to the general public.

Having completed this short film, three of them (Starfire, Raven, and Beastboy,) proceeded to show the film to three separate people each, and interviewed them about what they thought of it. The interviews make it clear that, at this point at least, they were pitching the film as a fictional film they were making, rather than the documentary they would later insist it was. In the film, and at the Titans' personal insistence, this is due to Robin's insistence on keeping everyone else in the dark until an answer was discovered. Naturally, those who insist the film is fictional submit this fact as evidence.

Anyways, it seems they managed to find quite the cast of characters to interview, including a magician, a superhero from a different city, a scientist, two martial artists visiting from Japan with a reputation for dealing with strange goings-on, a horror writer, an architect, a high-ranking prosecutor, and a girl that Beastboy met in a library and decided to interview. As a quick summary of their interviews:

**Question 1: What do you think of the film?**

_Scene: Starfire is standing on a bridge overlooking a large river. A rather flamboyant-looking man dressed in an obvious stage costume approaches her. _

Starfire turns to the strange man and gives a small bow of her head. "Greetings," she says. "You are the one they call Maximilian Galactica, correct?"

"That's me, alright!" the man says, doing a strange sort of twirl. "I viewed the film you gave me."

Starfire doesn't look thrilled at the thought of the film, but proceeds with the interview anyways. "And... what were your impressions?"

"It was... quite an experience," Max says, an amused look crossing his face. "You certainly have a good grasp on the macabre. Never showing that monster was a stroke of genius! I found myself near unable to sleep at night!"

XXXX

_Scene: Starfire is interviewing a man dressed in red and overalls. He wears a hat with a red letter M on the front. _

"Unnerving is right," the young man says. (A caption identifies him as 'Mario Mario.') "If I had to describe your film in a couple words... messed up. Extremely, supremely messed up. I'm not sure about keeping the monster hidden, though. It seems you'd at least want to give the audience a glimpse of what you guys were dealing with. Then again, what do I know? My contract is for the Mario Mario series, not this story..."

Starfire stares for a second, then simply says, "What do you mean by 'story?'"

XXXX

_Scene: A lab somewhere. A young woman, somewhere in her early twenties, is scrutinizing a computer closely through a pair of round glasses. She is wearing an orange and blue uniform and has long red hair. Starfire approaches from behind and they introduce themselves to each other._

"Shion Uzuki," the young woman says, smiling. "Yeah, I watched your movie. Quite an... experience, I'll say that much."

"But what did you think of it?" Starfire asks.

"It was interesting," Shion shrugs, "but it was more than a little unbelievable. I mean, a hallway of that magnitude obviously wouldn't fit in a _**tower**_ of that size. From a scientific standpoint, I would conclude..."

XXXX

_Scene: Raven is speaking to a young man with black hair, dressed in a red sleeveless shirt. His hair is tied in a pigtail at the back. A caption identifies him as Ranma Saotome. _

"I'm with that Mario guy," he says. Raven's eyes follow his, as she notices him seemingly looking around nervously. "I had nightmares over that, and I don't scare easily, you know?"

"Your overall impressions?" Raven asks, keeping it brief and monotone, as usual.

"Well, I'll go with the Mario guy again- you really should have shown what they were dealing with."

"Isn't the whole point that the... characters... don't know what they're dealing with?"

"I don't know, I'm not big on movies... Wait a second, are you recording this?"

XXXX

_Scene: Raven is speaking to a young woman with short blue hair. Aside from this, she doesn't bear any other resemblance to her interviewer. A caption identifies her as Akane Tendo._

"Meh, not that scary," Akane says, lifting weights as she speaks. "I've seen much scarier things than that. You ever had to fight a fifty-foot tall **MINOTAUR** with wings? I'd say this is just some sort of Freudian thing- it's all about male pride!"

Raven stares. "Well, I don't really see where you get that from, if you don't mind me saying..."

"Well, it's only men that go in the hallway, isn't it?"

"... You _did _watch the movie, right?"

XXXX

_Scene: Raven is meditating in her room. She gives a small smile and mutters slightly more forcefully than usual: "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A tall man in a black suit and tie appears in front of her. Just looking at him, he seems even less likely to smile than Raven ever did._

Raven looks up in surprise. "Who are you?"

"I... am the spirit of Howard Lovecraft. You are... Raven Roth, are you not?"

"Yes... aren't you... no offense... dead?"

"Yes I am. No offense taken."

"...My condolences. But I was kind of trying to contact home..."

"My apologies. I had the pleasure of witnessing your film, and I desired to speak with you. It was easier to make contact with you when you were meditating."

"Okay... you want to give your basic impressions?"

"Indeed. I found it a particularly enjoyable film. I found the lack of cats somewhat disappointing, but the fourth exploration made up for it in droves. The delightful descent into madness on the part of the youths that entered the Labyrinth, the mysterious creature that refuses to show itself..."

Raven stares at her visitor in a certain amount of horror for a few seconds before simply responding, "Cats?"

XXXX

_Scene: Beastboy is on the top floor of a tall building speaking with a young blond woman carrying a paper and clipboard in her hands. As they speak, she looks eagerly around the building they are in. The caption marks her as Annabeth Chase._

"Well, of course, the biggest thing that ruined it for me was just how unrealistic it was," Annabeth says, looking distractedly around. "I mean, if that place is so large, there's no way it could ever support its own weight sufficiently. And even from a non-architectural standpoint, you have to wonder just _how _big it is- I mean, is it big enough to have its own gravitational pull?"

Beastboy has clearly been left in the dust by this point, but he puts on a good show of knowing what she's talking about. "I know, right?" he says cheerfully.

XXXX

_Scene: An office somewhere. The only thing of notable decoration is some sort of silver action figure on the desk. Beastboy is on one side of the desk, and a tall man dressed in red is on the other. The other man speaks with an absolutely serious expression and tone. The caption names him Miles Edgeworth._

"It is quite an interesting film, actually," Edgeworth is saying. "I found it a fascinating commentary on the nature of crime and justice."

"Huh?" Beastboy asks, a question mark in his eyes.

"Indeed," Edgeworth nods. "It seems to me a chilling morality play about how one must go through many trials in order to wash themselves of their sins- and those that fail to do so will be left behind."

Beastboy, looking around, quickly casts his eye on the action figure. His eyes lighting up, he says, "Ah, you like the Steel Samurai too!"

Edgeworth abruptly turns as red as his outfit. "Um... no, that is a gift... for a friend."

"But on here, it says, 'From Wendy, to Edge-'"

"Stop being observant!" Edgeworth snaps.

XXXX

_Scene: Beastboy is speaking to a young woman with brown hair and carrying a stick by her side. They are in a library. According to the caption, she is one Hermione Granger._

"Well, that film you gave me was... interesting," she says, speaking in a British accent. "Not, of course, that I believe in ridiculous things like buildings being bigger on the inside. That would be... ridiculous."

"Of course!" Beastboy says, sounding just as awkward. "Bigger on the inside, I mean, what's that all about?"

"I do find the cause interesting, however," Hermione comments. "That, I think, is your movie's most appealing feature- the search for answers, the desire to answer the strange. Even if... you know, it _is _completely impossible..."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling the whole-"

"Stop being observant!" Hermione quickly snaps.

XXXX

**Question 2: What are your impressions on the Labyrinth?**

"Oh, the Labyrinth is the star of the show- the most valuable performer, if you will," Max says, bowing extravagantly. "A feeling I know all too well. I cannot tell if it would have been better or worse if they'd found an end to that place. It is fascinating..."

XXXX

"Hey, don't ask me, I've been through a lot of messed-up situations before," Mario says, "but nothing like what you're showing me. I mean, a place that changes as you're in it? All I want to know is just _how _stable that place is. I'm still trying to figure out why I'm in this story."

"Please, friend, what do you mean by 'story?'"

"...I'll tell you later."

XXXX

"Yeah, about the Labyrinth," Shion says, pulling out a large piece of paper and a sharpie. "I've stayed up a while thinking about that, and I think I have an answer. Look, watch as I do this..." She draws a quick line down the middle of the paper. She makes a dot at each end, labeling one A and the other B. "Now, let's say I go halfway down here-" here, she adds a dot to the middle, "-and we'll call it C. Now, I go halfway down from C towards B, and I get to point D. And assume that I keep going halfway down. Because I'm only ever going halfway, I'm never going to get to B, am I? No matter how small the distance is, I'll never actually get to the other end- only halfway. I think you have the same problem with your Labyrinth."

"I apologize," says a very confused-looking Starfire, "But I do not see how your logic connects to the film..."

"Maybe you have to be a mathematician," Shion shrugs.

XXXX

"Well, maybe I'm not supposed to say this," Ranma says, nodding, "but I'm with that Jinx person on this one. All you need to do is power through that place, find the end. The place is trying to scare you, distract you, you can't let it- holy crud, _is that camera on?!_"

"But that led to Jinx killing herself," Raven points out with a frown.

"Well, she'd gone kind of insane at that point, she let herself get distracted. I'm guessing that someone more level-headed- I don't know, you, for example- could get through much easier." He pauses for a moment, looking around nervously, and adds, "I really hope you didn't think I was hitting on you just now."

XXXX

Akane laughs, though the laugh doesn't quite reach her eyes, which suddenly flare up. "He actually said that?" she laughs. "You want my honest opinion, I think they should have left it up to the girls from the start. Everyone knows girls are more level-headed."

"What about Starfire? She panicked when she saw that place," Raven points out. A certain fire enters her eyes at the implied insult to her friend.

"She's obviously a gross exaggeration," Akane handwaves. "I mean, any real self-respecting woman would never be afraid of a little dark hallway-"

Whatever she was going to say is cut off as the already not-quite-stable Raven snaps and lunges forward. The camera, apparently operated by Cyborg, is dropped as he rushes forward to pull Raven off.

XXXX

"Indeed, the Labyrinth," Lovecraft muses. "Oh, most haunting of cyclopean architecture! Though I could not detect any form of architecture at all. It makes me wonder what manner of beings devised such a place, and to what purpose... perhaps a training ground or initiation chamber for new members of some heinous cult? Or something broader- an access point to speak with eldritch, long-forgotten gods, spoken of only in the abhorred Necronomicon of the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred?" Abruptly looking down, he adds, "You know, the impression that I walked away from your film with was somewhat... less than fictional. This all actually happened, didn't it?"

Raven, still staring at him, mutely nods.

Lovecraft gives a small smile- the effect is infinitely more terrifying than his demeanor beforehand. "You know, I think I would like to visit that _**tower**_..."

XXXX

"Well, as I said, the whole thing is an abomination of architecture," Annabeth says, rattling her analysis off at roughly five hundred miles an hour. "From what I've seen, there's nothing in that place that you'd usually need to make a physical structure last. No support columns or beams... there's simply no way a structure like that could sustain itself. I mean, think about it, if it were a physical structure, think what it would look if that _**tower**_ weren't bigger on the inside- some great big lump of carved stone sticking out of the side, connected by one little hallway? No, it's just not feasible."

Beastboy, looking just as hypnotized as during any Mad Mod fight, mutely nods.

XXXX

"The Labyrinth is easily the most interesting part of the film," Edgeworth agrees. "To elaborate on what I said earlier, it seems to me that everyone who enters that hallway does so with some sort of sin that they feel guilt over- or, at the very least, are aware that they committed. Whether it's something small, like this... Tim's guilt over his drinking habits, or Jinx's knowledge of past criminal activities, or Terra's guilt over having betrayed these characters beforehand... Even Robin seems to feel guilt over whoever 'Emma' is. It is enough to make me wonder... and more than."

Beastboy is staring. "You know, I think I actually followed what you said," he says. "But what about Aqualad? I don't _think _he's ever done anything really wrong..."

"True, that is where my theory hits a snag," Edgeworth muses. "But then again, the lad in blue survived, did he not?"

XXXX

"I'm still not certain what to say about the Labyrinth, due simply to how impossible it is," Hermione continues to say. "I suppose... if there were such a thing as magic- not that there is, of course- that it could be an undetectable extension charm gone awry. Perhaps that's a literal interpretation of it, but there you go. Not that any of that's possible to begin with, of course. I mentioned it's not possible, right?"

Beastboy nods slowly. "I think you mentioned it, yeah."

XXXX

**Question 3: What do you think it all means?**

"I think it represents the human race's quest for knowledge!" Hermione says.

XXXX

"The inability of humans to outrun their sins," Edgeworth says, more solemn than at any other point.

XXXX

"The ambition of architects everywhere," Annabeth affirms.

XXXX

"The futility of human existence," Lovecraft says with an even creepier smile, before finally dissipating.

XXXX

"The feminine void," speaks Akane, now sporting a black eye and looking back at a very angry-looking Raven.

XXXX

"My need to _know whether that camera's on!_" Ranma says, still looking directly at the camera.

XXXX

"The inability of the human mind to comprehend certain information," Shion nods.

XXXX

"The eventual breakdown of the fourth wall," Mario says, only leading to further confusion from the orange alien.

XXXX

"A mystery," Max says simply. A light flashes behind Starfire. She jerks around to look at it, and by the time she's turned back, Max has disappeared.

XXXX

Part II

A Brief History of Who I Love

On the "Special Edition" of the film, this segment follows directly after _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought. _On the theatrical release, the film skips directly to this segment from _A Search for Answers. _Interestingly enough, in the theatrical release, the text describing the segment named it _A Brief History of How I love, _while the "Special Edition" fixed it to_ A Brief History of Who I love. _

More is revealed about this cinematic experience in the featurettes on the disc, as very little is actually talked about it in the movie. It is discussed that, as the four Titans separated from Robin involved themselves in the making of _Transcript, _they found, to their surprise, that they were feeling much better than they had been before. They still were affected deeply by their experiences, but they seemed much less affected as they discussed it with others, as though the combination of time away from the Labyrinth, combined with being able to speak with others about it in such a lighthearted manner, lessened its impact on them. Starfire is able to sleep a little better, Raven is less afraid of being alone, and Beastboy gains a bit of his old sociability back. However, as is noted, Robin, not being present at all, is unable to reap similar benefits. Starfire, saddened by the conspicuous absence of her greatest friend in the Titans, proposes a new project for them to work on, hopefully to get their missing friend involved. After a small amount of coercing, the others agree to work on it with her.

The first thing they do is fly to Gotham City and give a brief, basic rundown of the situation to Robin's old mentor, the famed Batman. After explaining things and describing the project they intend to make, they earn his support, and he begins providing them with clips of footage and some still images he has in his database of Robin's earlier life before arriving at Jump City.

Following this, they return to their tapes from in Jump City itself, whether from the _**tower**_ or from the various security cameras, or from old newscasts. What follows is what is widely considered the most heartwarming moment of the film, as Starfire, with the technical advice of the others, begins work on the short that she dubs, _A Brief History of Who I Love. _

The film begins with simple circus music, detailing the Flying Graysons and their early rise to fame. This segment of the short isn't restricted solely to shots and clips of Robin and his family flying through the air, it also has some more home-video style shots. Robin and Tim, carefree youths, run around a park-like area, laughing and playing. A chortling man that seems to be their father watches on, and a kind woman appearing to be their mother takes a drink from a bottle of water.

Tim watches in awe as his brother easily ascends a climbing wall in near-record time. Tim tries to follow, but has a much more difficult time. When he finally reaches the top, he is gasping, and his hands slip, leading to his tumble down onto the mat. Robin looks briefly panicked, jumping down and landing lightly next to his fallen brother, only to laugh as Tim springs up, good as new, and with his usual smile on his face.

The short takes a turn for the somber as a gas station camera captures a fight going on just outside. A younger Tim is being beaten down by a group of brutes around him. Abruptly, Robin appears, and proceeds to beat his brother's tormentors into the ground. Tim stands up, and after a brief berating, the two embrace once more, muttering words not caught by the silent camera.

The music grows more upbeat as we see Robin and his family celebrating what seems to be the two brothers' graduation. Both are dressed in black robes and caps, at least. Tim tosses his into the air with a great show of enthusiasm, while Robin simply takes his off and stares at it for a moment, as though reflecting on what lies ahead.

The upbeat music continues as we return to the circus. The Flying Graysons are flying once more, performing amazing feats at least a hundred feet in the air. Abruptly, something seems to go wrong- the circus is invaded by a man with burns down the side of his face. We never hear what he says, but after several cuts showing the Graysons' activities throughout the incident, we cut to music even more somber than before as Robin silently approaches the dead bodies of his parents lying on the floor of the tent. Tim stands wordlessly on the other side. They look up at each other, but are powerless to actually speak. Slowly, Robin turns and leaves. Tim raises his hand briefly, as though to call out, "No! Please, don't go!" But the words go unsaid as Robin exits the tent.

The music grows more dramatic as we see a man dressed in a suit approach young Dick Grayson. He is easily recognizable as the famed billionaire, Bruce Wayne. He offers to take the young man in. A series of several cuts takes us through the process that led Dick Grayson to shed his old identity and take on the moniker that would become much more well-known the world over.

Several scenes afterwards show Batman and Robin fighting together on the streets of Gotham. Adventurous music kicks in as we watch them fight the Riddler, the Joker, and Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent.

However, all good things come to an end, as is the case when we see the two having a long-forgotten argument. The forgone conclusion occurs, and Robin leaves Batman, heading for a different city.

In the new city, we see him watch a shooting star cross the sky, only to hurtle down to earth and crash into a building. As he rushes to investigate, of course, he meets the plucky green changeling, the young man with half his body comprised of metal, and the young half-demon sorceress who would become his companions. And then, of course, they meet the young orange alien who would grow to be the heart of the team. Together, they unite to take down the aliens pursuing their newfound friend, and the rest is history.

However, the short continues, taking us through several of their more notable adventures. The music follows the mood as they encounter the wackier villains such as Mad Mod, Control Freak, or Mumbo Jumbo, or growing more intense as the short follows their crusades against villains more of the ilk of Brother Blood, Trigon, the Brain, and, of course, Slade.

It seems inevitable that a short detailing Robin's history would include his long-standing grudge against the man known to the world as Slade Wilson. A few luckily-placed cameras capture some of their more famous battles, as each one attacks the other, never clear which will triumph. We see clips from Robin's investigations into Slade's true identity, as he stares relentlessly at scattered newspaper clipping posted around his room's walls in place of posters. Unable to accept his old rival's apparent death at Terra's hands, he examines Slade's old battle mask, with disastrous results. However, he never stops believing that the man is out there, and his paranoia is proven correct as Slade puts in yet another appearance, this time focused on a certain girl in blue robes.

After the fall of Trigon, of course, Slade disappears once more, leading to Robin taking the first amount of free time he gets after returning from the battle against the Brotherhood of Evil to begin his tracking once more. It all culminates in roughly one year prior to the film's events.

One of the final moments of the film takes place after all the events at the _**tower**_ and including the Labyrinth, which the short, for better or for worse, refuses to even touch. Starfire is sitting in her room when Cyborg enters, holding an old newspaper clipping. He hands it to her, never speaking. Starfire recognizes it as a clipping she's seen Robin poring over many a time. It is dated a year ago, around the time that Slade was killed for good. And sure enough, that is the story that covers the headline. Slade's picture covers the front of the paper, along with an article detailing his past crimes and final death. However, the true story told by the clipping is not on the front, but on the back.

On the back of the clipping is another part of the paper, cut out from a separate page and attached to the back of Slade's article. The majority of the second clipping is a picture ripped from the obituaries. It is clearly taken from the same day as the story about Slade. This picture is of a young woman with long black hair, wearing a pair of sunglasses on her face. She is wearing a white t-shirt, and is smiling good-naturedly at the camera. And, sure enough, just over her head is the name that has been coming up over and over again throughout the film:

Emma Bowman.

XXXX

Even this short summary is incapable of describing the full effectiveness of this short. Many an analyst has described it as the antithesis of the Labyrinth, and rightly so. Where the Labyrinth is long, cold, dark, and silent, the film that Starfire has produced with her friends' help is brightly lit, warm, and always has music playing in the background. The Labyrinth would have seemingly undone Robin, while the short seeks to build up and describe who he is. Even with all the clips of him fighting crime and endlessly hunting Slade, the short never fails to show the moments he spent having fun with his friends, playing video games with Cyborg and Beastboy, having philosophical discussions with Raven, and, of course, going out and having fun with Starfire. Yet another highlight of the short is the summary of the group's adventures in Tokyo, culminating in a shot of Robin and Starfire's climactic kiss. However, the bit that analysts love to discuss more than any other is the partial revelation of Emma and her ties to Robin.

Many even wonder if this is what caused Robin to decide that _Exploration #5 _was necessary.

_XXXX_

And here I leave you for now. A few notes: first off, sorry if I offended anyone with the earlier part of this chapter. I'm not anti-feminist by any means, but that's what the character in the original book was like. In addition, sorry this one didn't have as much focus on the characters, taking more of a broad approach, but we'll be getting back to the main storyline next time, with the next chapter, _Catharsis._ See you all then, please R&amp;R, constructive criticism more than welcome, flames not as much, Gamer4 out.

Credits for _Transcript:_

Maximilian Galactica: Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice For All.

Mario Mario: My other story, the Mario Mario series, based on Super Mario Bros. by recursion.

Shion Uzuki: Xenosaga.

Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo: Ranma 1/2

H. P. Lovecraft: Actual historical person who wrote horror stories.

Annabeth Chase: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Miles Edgeworth: Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney

Hermione Granger: Harry Potter


	20. Catharsis

Gamer4 in. Hello, my friends, and welcome to the penultimate chapter of _**Tower**_ of Leaves. Thank you all for following this story so far. I have nothing else to say here, so let's get right to it.

Disclaimer: Incidentally, _The Brother's Story _is based on _The Mother's Story _from the original book.

Chapter XX

Catharsis

Of all the moments, plot points, characters, ideas, themes or threads in the film released by the Titans, the one that is the most picked over, the one that causes analysts to lose the most sleep, boils down to one simple question: _Why? _Why did Robin return to the _**tower**_?

This is a question so large that college graduates have written entire dissertations on it, and there are multiple study groups that have written entire essays, all desperately trying to determine _why _Robin decided that another exploration was necessary. Ultimately, however, one theory seems to have prevailed over all the others, and is so commonly accepted that it bears an at least basic summary here.

Now, this manuscript exists, not to teach or encourage any particular theology, but to give a summary and analysis of the film released by the Teen Titans after they left their _**tower**_. However, this particular story from the Bible is so relevant to all the theories buzzing around about the film that an at least basic summary of it must be given to fully elaborate on them. So, trying to stay as neutral as possible...

In the Bible, there was a prophet named Jonah whose job entailed giving messages from God to all the people of the land. One night, God commanded him to deliver a message to the infamously brutal city of Nineveh, causing Jonah to panic and actually flee from that city, boarding a ship to another city altogether. As the ship sailed away to the separate city, it was suddenly struck by horrible storms that steadily began to tear the ship apart. Jonah understood that it was his disobedience that had brought God's wrath down on the ship, and also understood that for the seas to be calmed, he must abandon the ship, throwing himself into the seas. Different versions of the story take slightly different directions from here, but no matter which they take, it ends with Jonah in the water. The moment he has left the ship and, famously, been swallowed by a large whale, the seas calm, allowing the sailors to move on safely.

While the story continues after that, we have already covered all that needs to be to explain the theories. And those theories boil down to one idea: Robin is Jonah.

According to certain analysts, Robin is correct when he speculates that he has somehow brought down misfortune on the _**tower**_\- either that, or he is one of many responsible for the appearance of the Labyrinth, and all that has followed. Either way, for the Labyrinth to go away, and for all those affected by it to truly recover, all those responsible- whether Robin alone or among others- must be claimed by the 'stormy seas.' To a degree, this makes sense, as one compares the effects of the Labyrinth on the Titans and others before and after _Exploration #5:_

Starfire, who had been unable to sleep, and had been experiencing night terrors, found herself able to sleep soundly once more- and even lost her claustrophobia.

Raven lost her newfound co-dependency, and while she still socialized with others more than beforehand, she no longer felt a paralyzing fear of being alone.

Beastboy is fully able to interact with others again, and many would note that it seemed like a dark aura had been lifted off of him, one that hadn't been noticeable until it went away.

Cyborg, who had been experiencing a constant sensation of cold regardless of temperature was able to find warmth again.

Aqualad, who had been suffering a severe fear of the dark and of tight spaces since _Exploration #4 _finds that he can once again sleep well with the lights off, and while he won't be willingly going into any caves soon, he is at least able to enter his own closet without shuddering.

Even Arella, Raven's mother, finds herself cured, able to navigate her house without feeling the need to have her camera on her at all times.

This, of course, raises a key fundamental question: if Robin did somehow bring everything upon them, and thus it was, indeed, his return to the _**tower**_ that initiated these recoveries, then why? Why is he responsible? Why is he the 'Jonah' of the story? Theorists never seem to agree. However, one thing is certain- if any of this theory is true, the evidence lies within the next segment of the film, and within a video produced by Robin and left on his computer for the other Titans to find with the simple label of _Catharsis_.

XXXX

According to the film, by the time it picks up again, it has been roughly a month since the others sent Robin the files containing _A Brief Transcript of What Some Have Thought _and _A Brief History of Who I Love._ Starfire and Raven are currently in the middle of a conversation the camera can't quite catch, while Beastboy is playing his usual video games. As the scene continues, the door opens and Cyborg walks in. He is carrying several packages in his arms. "Mail call!" he announces. "Anyone expecting anything?"

Raven and Beastboy both silently stand, taking packages addressed to them. They seem to be forcibly not meeting each other's eyes. Raven slowly opens a new package of her trademark herbal tea, while Beastboy opens up a new video game. Beastboy pointedly turns his back on the others, reminding us of his current antisocial tendencies, and returns to his beloved gamestation.

Starfire, however, has a different response to the entrance of their friend. Taking a deep breath, she says, "Friend Cyborg... Raven and I have been talking, and..."

"Yeah?" Cyborg asks, heading into the kitchen and getting ready to prepare a meat-filled dinner. It seems that, of all the Titans, he is the one least affected by all that has happened. "What's going on?"

Starfire glances at Raven, but the other girl gives no sign that she hears their conversation- she has already begun brewing a new pot of tea.

Several people have noted that this scene seems to inversely reflect the scene that began the film- while the beginning of the film showed the five Titans in their usual daily routines, this scene shows them attempting to follow those routines, but seemingly with much more force behind their movements than before, and, of course, with the big difference that one of them is missing. Which, of course, brings us to Starfire's next sentence.

After a moment, Starfire seems to realize that Raven is not going to speak, and takes it upon herself to say, "We would like to go to the apartment friend Robin is currently living in and visit him."

Cyborg gives a small laugh. "Truth be told, I'd like that myself," he says, putting some grease in a pan. "Haven't heard a word from him since we sent him those tapes. But you remember what he said- he's off doing his own investigations. He's probably not even in the country right now."

"I'd believe that," says Raven, speaking at last, "but even if he was out of the country, he could find a way to get in contact with us. We literally haven't heard _anything _from him for a month. Can you honestly tell me that you don't find something a little weird here?"

"It's not all that unusual," Cyborg shrugs, his nonchalant voice not agreeing with the unease in his eye. "You know how he is. He gets caught up in his mysteries, he goes into his hole and doesn't come out for weeks at a time. I didn't figure he'd be in contact that often."

"But not so much as an email in a month?" comes the somewhat unexpected voice of Beastboy. "Dude, you have to admit, that's a little weird, even for him."

"Well, what are you expecting him to do? Go back to the _**tower**_?" Cyborg asks.

He clearly intended this phrase as a joke, but the effect it has on the atmosphere in the room is incredible. It dawns on each one of the Titans' faces, including Cyborg's, how ridiculous that statement is- it sounds _exactly _like something their leader would do.

Raven turns to Cyborg with a newfound sense of urgency. "Cyborg," she says, "last time you saw him, did he say anything- or do anything- odd? Out of the ordinary?"

"Define out of the ordinary..." Cyborg says, looking somewhat wrong-footed.

"Did you talk about the _**tower**_ at all?"

"Well, I asked him if he was planning on going back..."

"And he said...?"

"He said he'd never go back there!"

"_And you believed him?!_"

Everyone stands there in abject horror for a brief moment. Finally, Starfire reacts. "Come, friends, we must return to the _**tower**_ right away! If Robin has returned there-"

"Whoa, whoa, hold it!" Cyborg says, raising his hands. "Let's not go jumping to conclusions here! We don't know anything yet! If I could-"

"Well, how do _you _explain it, then?" Raven interrupts.

Cyborg pauses for a moment, then repeats himself. "If I could make a suggestion here, how about we head over to the apartment Robin's living in right now, and see if he's there. Or maybe he left a number or something. We'll see if we can track him down, and _then, _if he's not there, and we can't think of any other place he could have gone- in other words, when we're _sure _it's necessary- _then _we'll go back to the _**tower**_. We don't want to go back to that place if we don't have to, is what I'm saying."

Slowly, the others agree, and a moment later, they take the T-Car, which they've kept, and are heading across the city to Robin's apartment.

XXXX

The general reaction among audiences everywhere upon seeing what has become of Robin's apartment can succinctly be summed up by Beastboy's response: "Whoa."

To begin with, the place is a mess. It seems that, at some point since Cyborg's last departure, Robin stopped caring about things like homely maintenance, simply tossing garbage over his shoulder onto the floor. But the things that _did _draw his attention are the more noticeable here.

The entire living room of the apartment is taken up by a large desk that seemed to have taken the brunt of Robin's mania. There are endless drawings of long, black hallways littered around the desk, the floor, on the chairs, all over the place. However, unlike Raven's room more recently, these drawings were mixed in with actual photographs, which the group recognize as stills from _Exploration #4. _Strings hang across the ceiling with photographs that were half-developed of various seemingly unrelated things- stone statues, mountains, ocean waves, and, most prevalently, skyscrapers and other various works of architecture. There was an entire board on one wall dedicated to exterior shots of their old _**tower**_. And all that was without getting around to the _smell _of the place.

The room was proofed against everything. Obviously, it was soundproofed, using a method that Robin seemed to have devised by himself utilizing egg cartons, but it seemed to also be sealed off against smells- or, as analysts have since theorized, it was the other way around, and Robin actually intended to keep the smells inside the room, for purposes that no one can ever determine. While these acts could be loosely defined as the work of any maniac, the thing that tied them all together was the coupe de grace: each and every wall, floor, and ceiling was equipped with its own personal tape measure, extending the length, width, and height of every surface. Their purpose is only too obvious- the moment the place starts to expand, Robin would know right away.

"I think he had _something _on his mind..." Beastboy comments, looking around at the chamber in awe.

"This is _not _the time to be cracking jokes," Raven growls with a semi-threatening tone.

As Beastboy raises his hands in surrender, we get a brief glimpse of Starfire's face- she is horrified, stupefied into silence, and seems almost on the verge of tears.

Cyborg, however, is drawn to the one area of the room that seems relatively clean- the computer. He is sitting down behind it, and is already in the process of logging on. Luckily, he and Robin were sharing an account on it, so he is able to do so with relative ease.

"What are you doing?" Raven asks, turning to see him at work.

"Going into his video files," Cyborg explains. "I want to see if he's got anything on here that will explain all... this."

Slowly, the other three gather around as well, as Cyborg flicks through the files. Most of them are clips they recognize as bits of the film they've been in the process of putting together, and it's not until the last three files that this changes. The last two before the final one are, of course, _Transcript _and _History. _The final one is one they don't recognize at all, entitled _Catharsis. _After a moment of hesitation, they click on it, and it begins to play. Robin's face appears, and the first thing anyone will notice is that this is not the strong, confident Robin that most are accustomed to- this Robin looks as though he's been... broken. There is a haunted look in his eyes, and he looks like he might simply fall apart at any moment. However, it goes beyond just basic sorrow- he seems almost entirely helpless. However, when he speaks, it is with an obvious attempt to disguise it all. "Hey guys. I figure you'll get back here before I do. If you do, and you're watching this, it means that I'm gone, and I might not be coming back."

XXXX

"I don't know how long it'll be until you guys watch this. I'll admit, it feels a little strange recording a tape that I don't expect anyone to watch until I'm gone.

"You can probably tell, but I'm recording this right after I reviewed those two videos you sent me... _Transcript _and _History_. I wish I could say more... but... what can I? They were fantastic, and if I had to accept any last gifts before I did what I need to do... I can't think of anything I'd rather have.

"So, you've probably guessed by now. And it's true. I'm going back. Tonight. I'm going right back to the _**tower**_, back into the Labyrinth. I'm all packed up. I don't know how long I'll be in there. This time, I'm not leaving until I find some answers. I don't care how long I have to spend in there, wandering around those halls, I'm _going _to find the end of that place. Or die trying."

Here, his voice begins to break. "Yeah, die trying. That's all I've been thinking about. What is it really like... to die? Well, thanks to me, three people found out, and Aqualad only had a narrow escape. And there's no point denying it- it's my fault. I sent them in there. I'm the one who called Tim and asked him to help. If it weren't for me, they'd all still be..." Here, he takes a drink of something sitting off-camera. "I'll be honest. I don't expect to come out of there alive. So... I suppose this video will just be my catharsis- I'll come out with everything. You all deserve to know by now. Tim was right. I shouldn't have been so secretive about it to begin with.

"Speaking of Tim, that just goes to show it. How long did it take me to tell you guys that I had a brother? No, I was always too busy getting caught up in trying to find Slade, or hunting down the newest menace- I never realized that our _**tower**_ would be what brought me down. Except it hasn't brought me down- only people that got called in because I couldn't handle it myself. Terra, Jinx, Aqualad, and, of course, my much more admirable brother. And because they tried to help me, three of them are dead, and one of them just woke up from a coma.

"How can I know it's my fault? It's me that Labyrinth wanted from the beginning- not anyone else. Anyone else would have just considered it strange, then barred it off and not let anyone go in there. That's what Tim would have done. He was the real hero in the end- he's the one that bailed Raven and me out of the Labyrinth, he's the one who kept everyone together when I was stuck down there, and he's the one who saved Beastboy when the _**tower**_ itself fell apart. But me, I couldn't let it be. I had to keep going back to it, taking any chance I could to try and see what was inside. And because of my curiosity, Tim's dead along with two others.

"I've been having dreams lately. It's just like that Walter De la Poer described- I suppose the Labyrinth was after him, too. Thankfully, the dreams haven't spilled over into my real life- yet. I'm going back before that can happen. I can take the hint- it's me the Labyrinth wants. No one else will do.

"In my first dream, I'm standing in a field somewhere. I think it's just outside of town- but it's not any town that I recognize. Standing in the distance, I see this colossal snail shell. And by that, I mean that it's almost skyscraper size. I walk towards it, looking up in awe, wondering what sort of snail it could have come from.

"As I approach, I see there's a party of some sort going on around it- I suppose festival would be the right word. They're all eating the same thing, and, when I look closer, I realize they're eating the snail itself. The festival is to celebrate the snail, which gave it's life so the town could have something to eat. Then, one of them stands and notices me, and beckons me to the shell. I follow him over, and he motions in, inviting me to enter. I do, and I find that I can climb the shell just by walking normally- it doesn't seem like gravity has any effect on me in that place. At first, the shell is wide and open, and it looks like it's made out of white marble. But as I go along, it seems to shrink in size, probably because I'm going around the spiral. As it shrinks, it begins to change from white to dark, and after a while, it's become pitch black- with a streak of grey here and there. I look back- I haven't taken any turns, it would be easy to return. But the hallway ahead seems to not continue shrinking. And I know, deep down, what I have to do- I have to keep going, to find out how far this thing goes before it stops.

"Maybe that's a little weak, but maybe I just didn't want to talk about my other dream. The one that starts just after that.

"In my next dream, I'm walking down a dark corridor- it looks pretty much like one of the Labyrinth's hallways. Eventually, it empties out into a gigantic room- well, I say room, but it looks more like a cavern. I look behind myself, but the hall I took to get there had vanished. Looking around, I see that the cavern isn't empty- there's an entire crowd of people in it, sitting, walking around, talking, but they seem to be concentrated around the center. I also notice that they're all wearing white clothes, but it's not consistent. Some of them are wearing t-shirts or jackets, but others are wearing different styles of clothing- army uniforms dating back several centuries, robes, I think there are a couple of togas in there... and I realize that this place is where souls come when they die. Everyone here is dead, spanning from recently to centuries to... even millennia ago.

"I make my way to the center, and I find them all standing around a well set into the ground. Looking down, I can see a bunch of people who've jumped in over the years sinking slowly to the bottom- a bottom that doesn't seem to exist. As I stare in, someone gently pushes me to the side, and climbs up onto the top of the well. Everyone around him watches as he slowly looks down at the well, then jumps in. However, before he can reach the level of the souls beneath him, he disappears in a flash of blue light. And I know how this all works without being told.

"No one _has _to jump into the well- there's no rule stating that. The souls in the room can just stay there as long as they want- forever, if they desire. But the only way out of the cavern is to jump into the well. And that's when your soul is judged. If you led a good life, you're saved- you disappear in a flash of light, and go on to... whatever's outside that cavern. But if you didn't- if you were evil in life- then you sink down to the bottom of that bottomless well. Nothing else, just sinking for all eternity.

"The dream ends just as I'm reflecting back on my life, trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea for me to jump. And I think I've decided by now. It's clear to me. I don't know how much what I did before would count, but there's one big sin I've committed, and I've never owned up to it. You all know by now. I can tell you in one word: Emma.

"I've kept this a secret for so long that I don' t know just how to go about explaining it. But I have to. Like I said, you all deserve to know. My greatest crime. Even worse, I dragged Terra down with me, even though she was innocent in all this- but admitting that would be like admitting my own guilt. I couldn't do that, so even worse than what I did, I also let Terra think she shared the blame.

"To an extent, I suppose, it starts with her. It started after Beastboy told me that he'd seen Terra still alive- just after we fought that weird creature that took on properties of whatever it touched. He seemed so certain that it was her, that I at least had to check to see what I could find out. And what I found was a girl, named Terra, currently living in a house with two others. One was named David Bowman. And then, there was his younger sister- a young girl named Emma.

"They were good people. The way I could tell, David was taking care of Emma after their parents had died, but you wouldn't know that by looking at them. They seemed like normal people. I made a habit out of stopping by, first to make sure that Terra's powers didn't go out of control again, then just to visit them. They always welcomed me like a friend, and everything seemed fine... but then..." here, his face crumpled, "Slade came back.

"Of course Slade would come into it. It was about a year after we got back from fighting the Brotherhood of Evil. Slade decided he was going to take another shot at taking either Terra or me for his apprentice. Eventually, he got around to capturing David. He almost caught Emma, too, but David managed to get her to a safe place before that happened. Terra was out at the time. Emma went to her, and then they both came to me for help getting David back. Terra was unwilling to use her powers, because of what happened last time, back when she activated that volcano. So, in the end, the three of us headed over to Slade's newest hideout. You guys were all out at the time, but I think even that might be an excuse. I think... I think I wanted to face Slade alone. It was bad enough that Emma and Terra were involved, I didn't want to get anyone else involved too.

"Naturally, Slade was expecting us. He didn't even have to resort to big, fancy plans. It was the oldest trick in the book- kidnap someone important to who you want to capture, then just wait for them to come to you. And then he started his usual mind rape monologues, trying to break us down. By 'us,' I mean, 'me and Terra.' Our plan was to use ourselves as a diversion while Emma snuck into the rest of Slade's little base of operations and found David. But there was one thing we hadn't counted on- Terra's powers. She'd been getting control of them before she turned into stone, but all that time without any practice left her just as unstable as before. And, of course, Slade knew how to get to his victims- he knew exactly what to say to get under our skin. And before anyone knew what was happening, the building was coming down.

"Terra was horrified when she realized what was going on. She turned and ran down into the building, calling for Emma and David, while I chased after Slade. And that's when... that's when I did it.

"Emma had come up an alternate route, not paying attention to where she was going when the place started crashing down around her. She and David were running together. Meanwhile, while I was chasing Slade, we came to an intersection. One way was caving in- he went the other. I was about to follow when I heard David calling for help. I turned and saw Emma, half buried in rubble. David was doing all he could to pull her out, and he was so certain that I'd help, he never doubted it for a second."

Here, Robin begins shaking. Tears are forming at the edge of his eyes, ready to fall. "And, of course, you already know what happened next. Slade was getting away, and I couldn't stand the idea of letting him go free again. I left them- abandoned them, to chase after Slade. What did it matter, two citizens being left behind to die, if the greatest threat to the city could be eliminated?" He isn't trying to excuse himself- there is pure self-loathing in every syllable he speaks here. "And after that, the rest is history. I caught Slade. We fought. I got out. Slade died, right there, in that collapsing building. Terra managed to make her way out, and so did David- he managed to get Emma out. She wasn't dead- she was in a coma. The building's collapse had nearly ruined her. Her face was half torn up, her hip had been smashed apart, and she was missing an eye and an ear. And she wouldn't wake up.

"David didn't even speak to me. I didn't try to talk to him- I had no right to. He stalked away, took his sister to the nearest hospital. And that's where..." Robin chokes. "I can't tell the rest of the story. But Terra knew it, too. The only thing she never knew is why Emma was really left behind. She thought it was her fault- and I was too cowardly to ever correct her. She died thinking she was responsible. She told Tim the whole story from her point of view. The rest is written down in Tim's old notebook- I'm leaving it behind so you can read it.

"I always wondered what Tim would have done. But I know. Now I know. He was the real hero- he would have done the right thing. He would have let Slade go. He would have saved Emma. But..." here, Robin briefly breaks down altogether, muttering rapidly, "There was no Tim there there was no Tim there there was no Tim there I was no Tim there..."

Finally, he gets a hold on himself and straightens up. "That's all I have to say," he says. "There's nothing else to do. I don't pretend to know why this has all happened the way it has. I don' t know if the Labyrinth is something that's been there the whole time, or if it's somehow been summoned... sometimes, I feel like it's Emma's little revenge. But then... no, it can't be. If she were to jump into the well, there's no way she'd sink. She wasn't the type to hold a grudge. I... I really can't say anything else. If I just stay here, talking, I'll never go. And I have to go. I have to. For everyone who's died because of me. Goodbye."

The camera cuts to black.

XXXX

The next scene seems to have been recorded after all the others. It does not take place after the Titans watch Catharsis, but at some other indeterminable point. The Titans are gathered around, reading the section of Tim's notebook titled, _The Brother's Story. _

_David rushed Emma to the hospital as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn't have enough money to get Emma in, but Robin stepped in, and he was happy to take the bill. For some reason I can't imagine, David was incredibly hostile towards Robin that night. Something about Robin not deserving to stand at Emma's bedside._

_The doctors gave it to us straight- even with the best medical care they could provide- paid for by Robin- they didn't expect her to last the night, her condition was just too critical. David took the news as well as I imagine he could, under the circumstances, but you could see the sadness in his face. Emma was the most important person in the world to him. He didn't go home that night- he stayed by Emma's side, singing a song that I'd imagine was a lullaby of some sort that they both knew. It was against regulations, but no one had the heart to pull him away from her. _

_In the morning, a miracle occurred- Emma was still alive. The doctors were shocked at this- her condition was still critical, and there was still little chance of recovery, but she had done what none of them thought possible- she had pulled through the night. In fact, she seemed ever so slightly better than the night before, as if David's simple presence had kept her going. _

_Throughout the day, David didn't leave Emma's bedside. Robin and I stepped in on occasion, but neither of us could spend as much time there as we'd have liked. But David was unfailingly loyal- he stayed with her throughout the day, only eating food that we brought him- well, food that _I _brought him, he seemed reluctant to take anything from Robin. But he hardly ever spoke- he just stayed by his sister's bedside. The doctors stepped in to take tests every now and again, and David just waited for them to finish. They brought her back, and she was still unconscious, and the doctors once again delivered the verdict that she was unlikely to ever recover. She was relying on heavy life support to continue functioning, and any thought of her being able to continue living a normal life was ludicrous. _

_Once again, David stayed the night. He wouldn't leave. Just like the previous night, he stayed with her, whispering things to her and singing songs that they would have heard in their youth. And the next day, when the doctors came in, she was still breathing._

_The doctors were confounded at this- by all accounts, Emma should have been dead by now- the paper had even run her obituary already- but Emma herself was continually clinging to life. And again, she seemed slightly better than the previous day. Several doctors began to change their diagnosis- they didn't know why, or how, but they began to think that Emma just might pull through after all. _

_This kept going for a week. David stayed by his sister's side the whole time, eating whatever food people brought and forced him to eat, sleeping in a sleeping bag at the foot of her bed, and whispering words and singing songs to her during the night. Every day, when the doctors came in, she seemed a little better than the night before. By the time a week had passed, it had become something of a phenomenon- the entire hospital had heard about the girl in emergency care who simply refused to die- or, possibly, her brother wouldn't let her. They began placing bets on whether or not she would live, and she was getting surprisingly good odds. _

_Finally, the doctor in charge of the project decided that the time had come for Emma to be taken off life support- if she was going to survive at this point, she could do without the mechanical help. It would be a very careful process, and he took David through each individual step, explaining in meticulous detail how they would go about it. Before he did anything, he got David's permission, as Emma's only living relative- and Emma, of course, couldn't speak for herself. David just nodded mutely- it might have been my imagination, but far from being happy, he seemed almost depressed at the news. _

_Half the doctors in the hospital turned up for this occasion- and the half that didn't turn up had friends there who would tell them how things went right away. Robin and I were there, for sure, standing right next to her bed. Everyone wanted to see if David had done the impossible, and had somehow managed to revive his sister just by talking to her. The doctor in charge took David through the process one more time, explaining each step in careful detail. Again, David just nodded, but this time, he asked to talk to Emma one last time before they began. The doctor agreed, and David approached Emma, Robin, and me. He didn't even look at us, he just knelt down next to his sister's bed and whispered six words in her ear- six words that I still remember today, and I'm fairly certain Robin does, too. _

"_It's okay. You can go now."_

_And just like that, before the doctor could touch a single one of the machines around Emma, she flatlined. No one understood how, or why- as David had spoken to her, her heart had simply stopped beating. The doctors tried all they could, but they were unable to revive her. And David just turned around and left the room, tears streaking down his face. Robin and I watched him go, wondering. Whatever it all meant, we would never find out now._

_Emma is gone._

_XXXX_

And on that very depressing note, we end this chapter. Next time, we approach the end as the other Titans return to the _**tower**_ in hopes of finding their lost friend in _The Final Chapter. _See you all then. Please R&amp;R, constructive criticism welcome, flames are not, Gamer4 out.


	21. The Final Chapter

Gamer4 in. Well, I'll admit, it feels a little strange to be coming to this moment. It's been around three months since this story got started, and now, it's just about over. Thank you all for staying with it all the way. I'm just worried this chapter might be bit shorter than usual. Like I said in an earlier chapter, I'll round out the last chapter with a quick summary of Johnny's story from the original book, just for those of you who are interested. But enough of that, let's get right to it.

Chapter XXII

The Final Chapter

As the video comes to a close, the film returns to show the Titans' faces. If they weren't horrified before, they certainly are now. For a long while, none of them speak at all. Finally, Starfire breaks the silence. "A month...?" she says slowly. "He has been in that unpleasant, dark Labyrinth for... a month?"

Everyone looks up at her, the realization dawning on them as well. After all, they've seen what happened to Terra, Jinx, and Aqualad after a few days in the Labyrinth, let alone an entire month.

"Alright," Cyborg says, standing. "Now, we can go back to the _**tower**_."

Raven holds out her free hand. (Her other hand holding the cane she is using to support her bad leg.) "Hold on," she says. "Are we planning on going back into that Labyrinth?"

"If we have to, yes," Cyborg says without missing a beat. "He's our friend, we're not leaving him down there alone."

"That's all fine and good," Beastboy comments, "but how are we supposed to track him down? You know what that place is like- how are we supposed to find him, if he's been in there for a month? Heck, it could be even worse than that- isn't time weird in that place? Remember when he got stuck down there last time? It was a few hours for us, but it was a couple weeks for him. And he's been down there a month- by _our _time..."

Starfire gasps. "WE MUST GET OVER THERE RIGHT NOW!" she cries. She grabs Cyborg, the designated driver, right out of his seat and rushes out of the room, dragging him along with her. Raven and Beastboy exchange an awkward glance, then follow them out.

On the outside, Cyborg is struggling to wait up for them as Starfire urges him to start the car. "There is no time to waste, friend!" she is repeating. "If Robin has been down there for so long, we do not have a moment to lose!"

"I'm just waiting for Rae and BB," Cyborg says quickly. "We'll want them to come along, too-"

At this point, Raven and Beastboy appear, and waste no time in jumping in the car. Finally, Cyborg fires it up and takes off down the road. Everyone looks worried, but no one more so than Starfire, who looks like she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Only one very brief scene takes place inside the T-car itself. As they make a rapid turn, Starfire begins to speak. "I do not understand, though," she says. "Why would Robin blame himself for these things? I do not see how he could have caused-"

"He couldn't have," Raven says. "He's not responsible for any of it. But you know what he's like. It's called survivor's guilt. There's this belief among survivors of catastrophes- and I think people like Robin are most prone to it- that it's somehow their fault, no matter how out of their control it was, or that they should have done something to stop it."

Starfire looks ready to ask another question, but she notices Cyborg preparing to make a left turn. "Cyborg, what are you doing? This is not the way to the _**tower**_!"

"We're getting some fishing wire and markers and stuff first," Cyborg explains. "Don't want to go in there naked, do-"

He is cut off by Starfire, who shouts, "WE ARE NOT! WE MUST GET TO THE _**TOWER**_ AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

The lungs of the distressed alien princess are enough to convince Cyborg to go straight, rather than left, at the next intersection.

XXXX

Night has fallen by the time the Titans reach the _**tower**_. And it is storming. The sky is consumed by angry-looking clouds, complete with lightning and pouring rain. The T-car finally arrives on the island, and, ignoring the garage, opts to park outside the _**tower**_ itself, so the Titans can enter through the front doors. Sure enough, there is another car sitting nearby that they recognize as one Robin had rented about a month ago.

The cameras the group has brought captures each one of their faces, each one consumed by its own brand of terror. It is clear that none of them are happy to be back at this building after all that's happened. However, Robin is somewhere within it, and they aren't about to leave him if there's anything they can do about it. So, armed with only their cameras, they approach the door and open it up.

The inside of the _**tower**_ is dark, but not the kind of unrelenting darkness that was characteristic of the Labyrinth- it was the simple, normal kind of dark that could be dispelled by flicking a nearby light switch- except, as the rescue party quickly discovers, flicking the switch does nothing. It seems that the storm has knocked out the _**tower**_'s electricity. Cyborg, Raven, and Beastboy look even less thrilled at this, but Starfire persists. "We have our own methods of lighting, yes?" she said. "I can use my starbolts, Cyborg has his flashlights in his shoulders, and-"

"Star," Cyborg says, "maybe we should put a hold on this for now."

Starfire turns on him in anger. "What do you mean?!" she cries. "How can you say such a thing?! Robin is depending on us to-"

"We won't be able to do much for him if we die, too," Raven points out. "We come in here unprepared, in the middle of a lightning storm, and with the power knocked out? I agree with Cyborg. We should go back and come in some other time."

"It _is _kind of the biggest horror movie cliche," Beastboy agrees. "The heroes go into the big, spooky mansion or whatever, stormy night, unprepared, no lights, and they get killed. Let's go back and try again on a better day."

Starfire still looks immensely unhappy about it, but she finally concedes the point, and together, the group heads back down to the T-car, and drive away.

XXXX

We hear nothing about the intervening time, as the film simply cuts from their departure to their return, as they pull up on the island once more. According to the cameras, it is a few days later, on October 10th, that they make their return trip. Compared to their last visit, the day is bright and sunny, not a single cloud in the sky. The group climbs out of the car, and this time, each of them has a backpack slung over their backs, ready to plunge into the Labyrinth for the final time.

Once again, they head up to the _**tower**_'s front doors and open them up. Mercifully, this time, the lights come on when the switch is flipped. The group is solemnly silent as they cross the hallway where Tim had fallen. They are incredibly wary, ready to turn and run back to the entrance if the floors begin to shift again. However, whatever had caused that to happen seems to have dissipated- the hall is perfectly still as they cross it to the elevators.

The elevators run smoothly as well, carrying them up through the _**tower**_ to the top floor. They grow even more solemn as they go through the main hallway, passing by all their old rooms, not daring to open them. They only have one destination- that door on the side of the living room.

Finally, they arrive in their destination. As the door opens, they gasp. While Raven was the only one who had been there to witness it, she had explained to the others how the entire room had tilted, with a mysterious pit of darkness swallowing up all the furniture in the room, and the tape that ultimately made its way into the film had corroborated her story. However, the living room looked exactly like it had before all this had happened- the couch was in its usual position, as was the television, the Gamestation- everything had returned to its proper place.

Finally, the group turns to the door sitting innocently in the wall. Interestingly, it is Starfire that steps forward towards the door, slowly reaching out to touch the wood. It is the exact door that Tim crafted to hold back the darkness of the Labyrinth- the door that had ultimately failed. But... wait... no, there was one small difference.

Starfire kneels down next to the door, looking for what should be there, yet isn't. "Friends... come and look at this..."

Slowly the others approach, and they come to the same realization- the four locks that had kept the door sealed had disappeared. Everything else on the door was the same, but it no longer had the capability to lock.

"Okay," Cyborg says, "now that's weird." Self-consciously, he reaches up with one hand, which converts into his sonic cannon. Raven raises her hands, black energy forming in her palms, and Beastboy turns himself into a raptor. Once Starfire looks around, making certain that her friends are ready, just in case something pops out, she personally summons a starbolt to her hand, and uses her free hand to turn the knob and open the door.

The other side elicits another gasp from the four. It was far from a horrifying sight- in fact, in any other context, it would be abnormally commonplace. However, what the sight implied, what it _meant _in their current scenario... that was a different story.

The sight that greeted them on the other side of the door was only this: a shallow closet, only a couple feet deep at the most. There are coat racks across the top, the walls are made out of the same material as the rest of the _**tower**_, without a sign of black or grey anywhere. There is even a light at the top, complete with a switch just inside the door. A quick test confirms that the light works, perfectly illuminating the shallow space. Sitting on the floor, meanwhile, is a long coil of fishing wire.

"N...no... no!" Starfire exclaims. It is a strange moment. In any other circumstance, the disappearance of the Labyrinth would have been considered a good thing, not bad. It is strange that the group should be so distressed over the disappearance of something so antagonistic. However, it goes without saying that, while the Labyrinth had brought them a great deal of sorrow, it was also ironically their ray of hope- as long as it had existed, there existed a way to retrieve Robin. Without it... there was no other possibility except that their leader was...

"No!" Starfire cries. "I will not accept this!"

Raven turns to Cyborg. "Can you measure the _**tower**_ real quick?"

"On it," Cyborg says. He taps a few buttons on the side of his head. Shaking his head, he says, "103 feet, 11.75 inches. The inside's back to being the same as the outside."

Looking up, the same thought seems to occur to them, and they rush out of the room, and down the hallway. Funnily enough, because Raven's room is closer- more convenient- the enter it, rather than Beastboy's room. Raven has no objections, only thinking to get to their destination as fast as possible. However, they are once again met with disappointment- the walk-in closet that started everything has disappeared as well. There is no door in Raven's room except the one they all entered by. Slowly, Beastboy crosses the hallway and into his own room. A second later, he comes back, shaking his head. "It's not in my room, either," he says, hopelessness entering his voice.

The filmography perfectly captures the looks on the faces of each of the heroes, but none of them is more downcast than Starfire. A shadow seems to have crossed her face, as she looks down at the floor. Hope seems to have abandoned her altogether. Finally, she speaks. "Please... I must be alone... for a moment."

"Starfire-" Raven says, putting out a hand, but Starfire pushes it away.

"I wish to be alone," she says. "You may return to the car. I will be there soon."

The other three look at each other as Starfire steps out into the hallway and moves away. Cyborg says, "You two stay in here, in case something goes wrong. I'll head out and... start the car."

Slowly, Raven and Beastboy nod.

XXXX

From here, the film follows Starfire as she stumbles down the hallway, struggling to hold back tears. Finally, she arrives in front of her destination- a door simply marked **Robin**_**. **_She looks up at it for a second before moving forward, causing it to slide open. Even in her despair, it is notable that she goes out of her way to turn the lights on.

Inside, she looks around at all the things Robin left behind when he'd rushed out into the hallway. She wondered if there was anything he'd forgotten. He'd certainly gone out of his way to remember the newspaper clipping with Slade and Emma. Perhaps it showed just how much he thought about that day, that he'd taken that object with him above anything else in the room. Scattered around the walls are several posters and newspapers that showed Robin's undying obsession with catching criminals. A great deal of them were dedicated to Slade- it seemed he'd never truly let it go, even after Slade's death. Not that she'd ever expected him to act differently. His bed was set against the wall. It was a simple, basic bed- Robin didn't splurge on luxuries where sleeping was concerned. Next to it was a computer that had probably seen much more use.

Moving slowly, Starfire crosses the room to the bed. Collapsing on top of it, she seems to be flooded with memories of her greatest friend. Her body is racked with sobs as the realization overcomes her. Her friend is gone, and will not be coming back.

The camera stays focused on her, so even the audience is thrown off when Starfire straightens up, wiping her eyes, and turns to see the sudden change in the room. It's fairly subtle, and there's no _pop _or any sort of rushing sound- nothing that, in film, typically indicates the sudden appearance of something that wasn't there before. And yet the look on Starfire's face shows that she doesn't remember seeing it there before. The camera even goes dark for a moment as she checks it to see if it shows up in her recording. According to her reaction, it doesn't. "What?" she asks, standing. "How... how did this..."

Once more, it is a fairly simple sight. Sitting on top of Robin's bedside table is a duffle bag. It is red and carries his symbol on the side. Starfire moves towards it as if she is in a dream. She reaches down and unzips it, revealing the contents. On the inside is a scattered assortment of items, including flares and neon markers, as well as some items of food that, strangely, still seem to be fresh. However, the items in the bag that most capture Starfire's eye are the various tapes. They are all in pristine condition, sitting silently in the bottom along with everything else, as though they were waiting for her. A small flicker of hope seems to cross Starfire's face- perhaps there is hope after all?

Moving quickly, she picks out one of the tapes and rushes over to the computer. She has become well-practiced in this art by now. She turns the computer on, and begins tapping her fingers impatiently, waiting for it to boot up.

As she waits, she fails to notice the strange change that comes over the room. Behind her, a shadow forms on the opposite wall. Slowly, it begins to spread all over the walls, moving in the same strange ink-like fashion that Raven observed during the evacuation. The walls steadily fade way, replaced by simple darkness. It swallows all the papers and posters, consuming everything in the room as Starfire works on the computer. However, she remains oblivious.

Finally, the computer finishes booting up, and she wastes no time in plugging the tape in, eagerly waiting for the video to show up, revealing what has happened. Even now, as the entire room behind her is consumed in darkness, she remains oblivious. This continues until the moment she turns around, which, of course, she inevitably does when she realizes that the tape shows


	22. Exploration 5

Gamer4 in.

Disclaimer:...

Chapter XXI

Exploration #5

Robin, it seems, has developed his own plan of action. Through his camera, we watch him arrive on the island on top of which sits the _**tower**_. He is driving a car that seems to be a rental. When he gets out, we see that he has attached his motorcycle to the top. He takes the second vehicle down, and begins wheeling it over to the building in front of him.

He seems nervous as he opens the front door, a fear that doesn't necessarily dissipate when he sees that the hallway within is perfectly still once more. He tries the nearby light switch, and the lights immediately come on. Grabbing his motorcycle again, he continues down the hallway towards the elevator. He is on tenterhooks the whole time- he clearly doesn't expect the _**tower**_ to have calmed down just yet. When he reaches the elevator, he hesitates for a moment, then seemingly decides to take the stairs instead.

Eventually, he reaches his destination in the top floor. Still, everything remains perfectly motionless. He pays no mind to the various rooms around him as he continues forward, heeding only his destination: the living room.

When he enters, the first thing he does is turn to the door that has been plaguing his mind for so long. As he approaches it, he notices that the locks installed on the door seem to have disappeared. Reaching down for the knob, he turns it. The door offers no resistance, swinging gently open for him, revealing the all-too-familiar sight behind. He takes out a flashlight and shines it down the Labyrinth's initial hallway. It looks the same as ever. However, before he enters, he takes his duffel bag off his shoulder and unzips it, going through his inventory one last time. Sure enough, he has brought several flares and markers, some food, as well as the usual fishing wire. Aside from that, he has the high-powered flashlight and camera he is currently carrying, a sleeping bag (sans tent this time) a book of matches, and- the most seemingly out of place- the fanfiction he'd just been printing out, just in case he gets the desire to read something within the upcoming halls.

Sighing, he returns his gaze to the Labyrinth. He takes out his bo staff and rams it into the ground, making sure it sticks. Following this, he ties one end of the fishing wire to it, taking the rest to unravel along the way. Finally, he climbs onto his motorcycle and faces the hallway, still standing there in front of him. Looking somewhat reluctant, he kicks the motorcycle into life. Now ready, he takes off into the hallway, moving slowly for the first ten feet, and continuing to adjust his speed accordingly as he makes his way through the initial halls.

Nothing of particular note happens after his entrance until he comes to the first fork in the road. Here, he stops the motorcycle briefly to look from side to side. He seems to be mulling his choice over. He knows where the left path will take him- to the antechamber, the great hall, and, eventually, the staircase. However... he looks to the right, seemingly wondering what lays down in that direction. Answers, perhaps?

As a minor detail that not many people seem to note, in the brief more-or-less silence as he halts the motorcycle, it is clear that there is something missing from the hallway that has always made its appearance by now before: the growling has not yet begun. Curiously, no matter how deep into the Labyrinth Robin goes in Exploration #5, the growling never seems to make itself heard. Finally, Robin comes to his decision: leaving the staircase behind, turning his motorcycle to the right and continuing off down the hallways.

At the beginning, the halls are perfectly linear, offering no forks at all. There is an occasional twist or turn, or a door off to the side, but Robin simply follows the hallway. Every now and again, he stops to check one of the doors, but none of them have more hallways behind them- simply rooms at the hallway's edge. Eventually, he stops checking them and continues down the hallway single-mindedly.

After he's been following the hall for a while, it suddenly empties out into a massive chamber, stretching out so far in every direction that the flashlight can't detect the walls or ceiling. As Robin steers further into this massive chamber, he begins to notice that he is gently speeding up, regardless of whether he is actively accelerating. Bringing the motorcycle to a brief stop, he looks around, and realizes that he has stumbled onto a downhill incline. For a while, he continues downwards, now neglecting to even touch the accelerator. Eventually, he places his foot on the brake to stop himself from going too fast for his liking. One gets the impression that he is waiting for the ground to level out at whatever bottom may be waiting for him. However, it does not. It just continues downwards, carrying him further and further into the darkness.

After a few hours of this, Robin seems to second-guess his decision. Either way, he makes a point to turn his motorcycle around and begin ascending through the new hall.

It doesn't take long after his turning around for him to realize that the motorcycle is accelerating a little _too _easily again. Bringing it to a temporary stop, he realizes that he has somehow begun going downhill again. Looking around, he sees that he has somehow turned his back on the way up. Shrugging it off as an error on his part, he turns himself around again, making sure to face uphill this time and begins accelerating. It is no good, however: within a minute, he is going downhill once again. This continues for a while, with Robin struggling to point himself up the hill. No matter how many pains he takes to do so, however, he always finds himself coasting down again. Eventually, he seems to give up hope, and simply allows the slope to carry him downwards towards whatever bottom might exist. The slope is steady, never altering by a single degree. The only sign he makes of not wanting to go down is keeping one foot on the brakes to ensure that, when a bottom does appear, he doesn't slam into it.

Finally, after what the camera indicates has been a whole day since he entered the Labyrinth, the slope begins to level out. He is able to comfortably release the brakes, allowing the motorcycle to coast to an eventual stop. He climbs off, and sets up his sleeping bag next to it, deciding he should stop for whatever constitutes as 'night' in that place. After eating a bit of the food he's brought with him, he climbs into the bag, and does what he can to fall asleep.

One jump forward on the camera later, he climbs back onto the motorcycle and continues forward. For a while, he is going over simple flat ground, offering no resistance, but not carrying him in any direction either. It takes him several more hours, but he eventually finds an opposing wall, almost an entire day after having first entered the vast chamber. Turning his motorcycle, he begins making his way to the left, waiting for something to appear on the wall. Eventually, he finds a door on his right, which he takes. He has been returned to the usual, more normal-size hallway. After the wide-open chamber that took him here, he seems to feel a little claustrophobia, just by comparison. For a while, he continues through the dark halls, taking an occasional turn. It is much the same situation as before he entered the gigantic room- the only offshoots of the hallway existed in the form of small rooms that he could easily tell from the entrance were entirely empty.

It takes a long time for the way he is following to differ once more, but after roughly another day of steering, taking into account a couple of breaks for food or sleep, he finds the hallway emptying out into another vast, cavern-like chamber. And once he sees what is within this chamber, we can only imagine his reaction beyond the gasp we hear, because the camera is focused on what he has discovered.

Deep within the Labyrinth, after having traveled for roughly two days by this point, he has found perhaps the strangest the Labyrinth has offered yet. Standing in the center of the gigantic chamber is a _**tower**_, incredibly large, standing hundreds of feet tall. However, that is not what captures Robin's eye: it is the shape. The entire vast _**tower**_, made of the same black stone as the rest of the Labyrinth, is in the shape of a colossal T. Robin seems even more put off by this, but, unable to think of anything else to do, he begins making his way through the cavern towards it.

At the foot of this _**tower**_ is a set of double doors that open easily enough for him, allowing him entrance. As he steers his motorcycle in, he gives another gasp. "You've got to be kidding me!" he mutters, marking one of the few times in _Exploration #5 _that he actually speaks.

The _**tower**_ is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. From the outside, it seems to be no larger than the _**tower**_ it was seemingly built in. On the inside, however, it stretched off for at least a hundred feet in every direction. On top of that, the insides of the _**tower**_ seemed to be a tangled mess of staircases, leading in random directions, coming from walls, ceilings, or even the floor. It so resembled a painting by M. C. Escher that he seems to close his eyes for a moment before opening them again, as if unable to believe what he is seeing. Things only get worse when he attempts to steer into this new _**tower**_: he finds that his supply of fishing wire has run out. Sighing, he seems to consider turning back, but, of course, he knows that is not an option at this point- even if he truly wanted to go back without his answer, the moment he got to that sloping chamber, he would be set back. So, deciding the only way out is forward, he abandons the wire and continues forward without it.

Up ahead, he makes the decision to begin ascending a set of stairs. They take him around and back into the main chamber of the _**tower**_, but now, he was driving around on what had once been the wall. Technically, this would mean that he is sideways. He even looks up at one point to see the door he entered by in the ceiling up above him. Sighing in exasperation, he continues pushing onwards, finding another set of stairs to follow. It seems he hardly has any choice in where he goes anymore- the Labyrinth is leading him around to whatever end it has in mind. That's how it seems, at least.

Robin finds himself going all over the place, no attention whatsoever being paid to the laws of physics. He goes across the walls, steadily going up and up, heading towards the ceiling, but every time he thinks he's worked out a pattern of how the staircases and offshoot hallways work, a new one takes him in an entirely different direction, throwing a wrench in his ideas and forcing him to reconsider.

Eventually, he finds his way into yet another long, single hallway. It doesn't branch off, but this doesn't hearten Robin- this is the strangest hallway yet. As he progresses down, it begins to narrow, the walls closing on him, as the ceiling rises up and up above him. Just when he seems to be considering climbing off his motorcycle and advancing on foot, the walls begin to separate again, heading off to the sides, at the expense of the ceiling dropping down towards him, exchanging the tall, narrow hallway for a wide, but incredibly short one. Eventually, he has to duck down over the handlebars to progress, and he goes very slow, just in case the hall shrinks anymore.

All at once, the hall empties out into another room. Robin can't begin to tell where this room might be in relation to where he entered this _**tower**_ within a _**tower**_. It is entirely empty except for a staircase. But, of course, it isn't that simple: the staircase doesn't go _up_, it goes _sideways_ and through a wall. Sighing, Robin brings the motorcycle around and heads through the hole in the wall the staircase goes through, only to find gravity reversing itself, forcing him onto the steps, making the wall he'd just been going through the ceiling. Almost too exhausted to care at this point, he continues up the staircase, which seems to be a miniature version of the spiral staircase elsewhere in the Labyrinth. After a while of climbing, it begins to narrow, to the point that this time, Robin really does abandon his motorcycle, and continues on by himself. However, the stairs only continue up for a little while longer after this, before flattening out to a platform up above. Looking down, he can even see the motorcycle, sitting there below him. Sighing, exhausted, he gives up on traveling until he's gotten a rest. Opening his duffle bag, he receives a shock- a great deal of the rations he's brought with him have disappeared. Sighing, he seems to lose all hope. He consumes what little remains of the rations, then lays down in his sleeping bag, taking another rest.

When Robin eventually awakens, he takes one last look down at where he's left his motorcycle, as if wondering if he'll even be passing by this way to see it again. However, the camera zooms in on something else- a darkness somehow thicker than the normal darkness of that place is spreading across the walls of the room he'd climbed up here from. As the camera watches, it spreads across and consumes his motorcycle, before moving on to the staircase, spreading upwards- towards him. Panicking slightly, he runs along the platform he'd just been sleeping on, until he finds a narrow crawlspace in the wall that he immediately enters. It is so small that he has to push his duffel bag through first, then climb in after it, pushing it along in front of him. It is lucky for him that he doesn't share Starfire's claustrophobia, or this would be a feat he'd never be able to accomplish. The walls press in tightly on all sides, but he makes sure to move as fast as he can, the darkness behind him clearly at the forefront of his mind. Like the hallway he'd just been through, this crawlspace seems to have a mind of his own, stretching out to the sides or upwards, making it alternately easier or more difficult to push his way through. Eventually, though, it settles on constricting further and further, until his arms are stuck out in front of him, no longer able to return to his sides. He can't see anything past the bag he is pushing in front of him, unable to see what awaits him, if anything, at the end of this grueling crawl.

Finally, however, the bag seems to pop out of a hole in front of him. Eager to escape the constricting space, he increases his pace as much as he is capable, until he gets to the hole, and comes out of it as well.

The wide open space at the other end is a welcome change from the tight space he had to go through to come here. Looking back at the hole, he is surprised to find that it isn't in a wall, as he'd thought, but in the ground. He'd thought he'd been crawling horizontally, and it certainly hadn't felt like he'd been climbing, but the crawlspace is clearly placed vertically in whatever surface he was currently standing on, at a direct 90 degree angle. Looking around, Robin is able to recognize the place he has come out on.

Moving slowly to a nearby edge, he looks out around the enormous, cavern-like room he has entered. He realizes he has made his way back to the room containing the _**tower**_\- and he is standing on the _**tower**_'s roof. Looking around, he tries to find some way to move onwards that doesn't involve a return trip through the crawlspace, where he knows there is darkness waiting for him, but there is none. For a moment, he fingers the grappling hook in his utility belt, as if considering using it to descend down the _**tower**_'s side, but no sooner does this thought cross his mind than he realizes that the darkness has spread across the chamber itself. Looking around, he realizes that the only place not covered in that relentless blackness is the roof he is currently standing on. The only way to, or from, the roof is the crawlspace. And he already knows that way won't work.

Despair and hopelessness seems to consume Robin, as he collapses to the ground, looking up and around at his empty surroundings. It seems his story is over...

As this thought occurs to him, he remembers the fanfiction that he printed out to bring with him on this trip. He turns listlessly to the duffle bag containing it, and takes it out, bound together by staples and binder clips. It is a lengthy title, 23 chapters long, each chapter spanning around ten pages, though there is the occasional exception. It is classified as Mystery/Horror. He runs his hand gently over the title: _**TOWER**_ of Leaves. He picks up the flashlight and shines it on the first page, and commences reading.

Almost immediately, his attention is seized, and he doesn't look up from the bundle of paper as he begins flicking through the pages, delving further and further into the story. He doesn't even pay any mind as the darkness moves in, consuming more and more, eventually consuming the _**tower**_ he was crouching on as he read. He hardly even seems to notice as the ground beneath him seems to fade out of existence, leaving him floating aimlessly through empty space, with no center of gravity to pull him to it. The first time he seems to express any concern is when, halfway through the second chapter, his flashlight begins to flicker out. "Come on, come on!" he mutters, smacking it against his hand. However, it is useless, and the flashlight eventually dies entirely. Angrily, he tosses it away from him, causing it to float away until it, too, is consumed by the darkness.

Ignoring it, Robin reaches for the only other source of light that occurs to him: the book of matches that he'd brought with him. Upon pulling it out, he strikes a match and begins to read by the flickering light the flame provides. However, this supply is obviously somewhat limited as well, and it is only a chapter or so later that he is down to his last match. Desperate for more light, as the final match dies, he sets fire to the box itself, providing a few more seconds. However, he is still distant from the end of the story. Thinking quickly, he grabs the first page of the story, pulls it away from the rest, rolls it up into a makeshift torch, and, as the matchbox runs out, he touches it to the page, setting it alight, giving him more light to continue reading.

Initially, this plan seems to work pretty well- he reads roughly a page for every page that he burns, almost ensuring that he'll be at the story's end before he runs out. However, he seems to slip up somewhere along the line. Perhaps the pages have grown more heavy with text, or perhaps his reading is slowing due to the heavy cold that is setting in on him, or maybe the flames are just proving hungrier than he'd initially counted on, but the pages that he is burning begin to catch up to where he is in the story. By the time he reaches the final few chapters, he is rapidly rolling up and burning the page that he just read to set it alight before turning to the next. His eyes become blurs as he rapidly scans down each successive page, struggling to keep up, only pausing slightly at one particular line of text that seems like a small poem of some sort. This, of course, only trips him up further, meaning that by the time he gets to the last page, he has no choice but to light the page itself, rapidly reading it under its own flame. Ultimately, he finishes the story just as the final page disintegrates.

His eyes close as he finishes the story. Now he has nothing left except for the camera. Looking around, he seems to finally realize where he is. "I'm... alone..." he mutters. Looking down, judging by the only point of reference- himself- he speaks aloud the poem from the story that had captured his eye:

"_Little solace comes to those who grieve, when thoughts keep drifting, and walls keep shifting, and this great blue world of ours seems a __**tower**_ _of leaves, moments before the wind._"

A single tear traces its way down his cheek. "I'm sorry... everybody," he mutters. "I'm so, so sorry. I was an idiot. I shouldn't have come back...

"It's cold... so cold... I never realized just how cold this place is. And... I just realized I haven't heard the growling this whole time. Maybe whatever it was has given up on me, too...

"It's... quiet here... strange... we were all so afraid of this place, but it's... peaceful. It's one of the most peaceful places I've ever been. Isn't that what we all want? A peaceful place... I mean... I never thought I'd go like this... I figured that I would die in a fight... not of cold in a quiet place like this... but still... if I had to go... there are worse ways it could have happened. I'm a little afraid... no... not a little... I'm terrified... I can't pretend to know what comes next... but... I suppose...at least I can die... in peace..."

His voice grows more strained as the cold gets to him. He curls up his arms, desperate for some form of warmth. After that, everything seems to go dark. It remains this way for a while. As many critics and analysts have pointed out, the tension of the moment tends to distract viewers- especially first-time viewers- from the truth about this segment- in essence, for about five minutes, they are staring at what may as well be a blank screen. There is no light, no sounds. Some say this is a brilliant way to show just how Robin is feeling at that moment, others decry it as spelling out the end of cinema.

Finally, after five minutes of darkness, a faint light appears. It seems to be faint less because it isn't bright, but because it is so distant. It is a distant, yellow-green light. Robin seems to notice it as well, but seems to dismiss it as a mirage or hallucination. "What... what is that? Oh, I see... that's the light that everyone's always talking about... well... nowhere else to go..."

Slowly, he seems to drift towards the yellow-green light, which seems to grow brighter as he draws closer. Robin, however, seems to be giving up hope. "I can... hardly breath..." he mutters. "S...st...Star..."

With that final stammered syllable, Robin seems to lose consciousness.

The tape on the camera runs out.

The screen becomes black.

A different kind of black.

Followed by the name of the publisher.

... Bad Robot.

_XXXX_

Ygg

d

r

a

s

i

l

What miracle is this? This giant tree.

It stands ten thousand feet high

but doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.

Its roots must hold the sky.

Gamer4 out.


	23. A Continuation of the Final Chapter

nothing whatsoever; no matter what she does with the tape on the computer, it resolutely shows that it is empty. After struggling with it for a few more seconds, she gives a sigh of disappointment before turning around in the chair and finally seeing what has happened behind her.

Naturally, her first reaction is a horrified reaction, as she quickly stands up with a gasp and backs away. However, after a moment, she hesitates. "...Robin?" she says questioningly, squinting into the darkness. She raises her hand and attempts to summon a starbolt. After a few failed attempts, she mutters, "No!" and, seemingly through sheer force of will, _forces_ a starbolt to appear in her hand. Once she's succeeded in doing this, she holds up her hand, with only the slightest signs of victory on her face, doing what she can to illuminate the darkness within. For a moment, she doesn't seem to see anything. Slowly, she moves forward. "Robin? Are you in there? Robin? Robin!"

As she speaks, she continues moving forward, until abruptly, it seems her feet leave the ground. It is clear from her startled reaction that this was not of her own volition- it seems she has entered an area without any center of gravity. However, she is used to not being fixated to the ground, and begins making motions to move forward, further into the darkness.

Behind her, the room returns to normal, with her outside of it. The darkness withdraws, vanishing, leaving the room looking just as it had before, with one exception: the various posters and newspaper clippings that had littered the room have vanished, leaving the walls bare.

XXXX

Outside, Cyborg has just left the _**tower**_, carrying his camera as usual. He doesn't speak as he crosses the ground separating the _**tower**_ and the T-car, his only destination. When he arrives at the car, he doesn't enter, but turns around, focusing the camera on the _**tower**_, indicating that he is turning around to throw one last glance at the building that had been the Titans' home for so long. However, as he looks up at it, he abruptly notices something at the bottom, laying on the ground. "What?" he asks, picking up the camera and moving forward.

As he approaches the thing on the ground, both he and the audience begin to realize it isn't one thing, but two people, one lying on top of the other, both unconscious. The one on top is Starfire, and her arms are wrapped firmly around the other figure, unmistakably...

"Robin!" Cyborg gasps. He is deeply unconscious, freezing to the touch, and half covered in frost, but it is undoubtedly their leader. He bends down, feeling for a heartbeat. It is there, if just barely. "He's alive..." Immediately, he straightens up. "Raven! BB! Get your butts out here! He's alive!"

Moments later, the blue-robed empath and the green changeling come bursting out of the doors and onto the island, by which time Cyborg has already relocated his two teammates to the T-Car.

"What's going on, Cyborg?" Raven asks. "Who's alive? Aren't we going to wait for Starfire?"

"They're both in the T-Car!" Cyborg quickly explains, ushering them over. "Starfire _and _Robin! He's alive!"

Raven and Beastboy, upon hearing this, waste no time in rushing into the car. Cyborg jumps behind the wheel and fires it up, bringing it around and taking off towards Jump City. Once again, there is only one destination on his mind: the hospital.

XXXX

Another cut of the film takes us into the hospital itself, where Robin has been carried into an emergency room. According to the doctor, Robin's inner temperature has dropped a near-lethal amount, and parts of him have gotten frostbite. It may be possible to save him, but they aren't hopeful. It seems that Starfire has awoken at this point, but if the dialogue is anything to go by, she has hardly spoken since Robin was brought in. The hospital begins treatment immediately, doing everything they can to keep Robin alive. By the time night falls, Robin has been removed from immediate danger, but the outlook still isn't good.

The other Titans, after staying for a while, eventually head back to their apartment after visiting hours have ended... except for one. Starfire refuses to leave Robin's side. Taking pity on her, Raven heads out to the store and brings back a sleeping bag, so that her friend at least won't have to sleep on the floor.

The next day dawns, and throughout the day, the Titans check in and out. Three times, they bring Starfire something to eat, as she refuses to leave Robin's side. He is still unconscious, and still very cold, but he is still alive. The doctors continue to do what they can for him. However, by the end of the day, Robin has lost an eye, an ear, and a good portion of his face's left side to frostbite. On top of that, the doctors discover that his hip has somehow been broken, and make moves to deal with that, too.

Time goes on, and eventually, Robin's outlook begins to steadily improve, with the doctors bringing in better reports every day, growing steadily more hopeful about his chances. Finally, the doctor comes in and gives a simple, four-word report: "He's going to live."

When Starfire awakens the next morning, she takes up her usual spot, sitting at Robin's side. Sadly, she places a hand on his chest. Abruptly, she hears a small moan. Looking down, she sees one of Robin's hands moving. Slowly, looking as though he still has a lot of strength to regain, he moves the hand over to hers, and covers it up. Looking up at his face, she sees that his eyes have opened at last. "...Hey," he says, the smallest of smiles crossing his face.

"Hello..." Starfire says, looking like she's about to break down. "Welcome... back..."

Robin, still struggling to move, runs his hand over hers a couple times. "It's... going to be okay... Star... it's going to be okay..."

XXXX

And so...

Debate still rages about the _**tower**_ that stands over Jump City. It was only a couple years ago that this _**tower**_ was barred off from the general public, and left abandoned on its little island, the Titans all perfectly happy to let it be. Every now and again, people will still go to look at it, to break in on a dare, or even try to set the building ablaze. However, it still remains, despite all attempts to remove it or renovate it. Raven has since commented on the building as such: "There's a reason we left that place. It's not for you. If you ever see it out of the corner of your eye, just move along. There's nothing there, not anymore."

A few months after they left the building, a film was released to theaters, and, eventually, on DVD and Blu-ray, instantly entertaining and horrifying audiences everywhere. It was made up of clips taken from various cameras, and supposedly told the true story of why they had left the _**tower**_. Many critics and analysts have declared it an entertaining enough film, and would be happy to leave it at that, if it weren't for the Titans' insistence that it all actually happened.

For the most part, the Titans seem to have taken this skepticism in stride. "It doesn't really matter whether you believe it or not," Raven later said. "All that matters is that you take its warning."

And what a warning it is.

XXXX

Robin was finally able to leave the hospital, twenty days after his arrival, on October 30th. The other Titans all eagerly await him at the door. He is wearing an eyepatch over his missing eye, but nothing covers his missing ear or the missing chunks of his face. He, like Raven, is leaning heavily on a cane for support, but despite all this, the Titans are very clearly overjoyed to see him there- and he them. It is worth noting that, in later years, they would begin fighting crime again, just as they always had. Robin was eventually able to walk without the cane again, though he would always bear a distinct limp that never truly went away.

The first place they go, upon retrieving Robin from the hospital, is to their usual pizza joint. To celebrate, they order an extra large pizza, making sure to keep it vegetarian on Beastboy's side, and begin eating.

Part way through the meal, Beastboy looks up. "So... things all worked out... I guess," he says. "But... what do we do now?"

"I'm thinking... we have all the footage," Robin muses. "Maybe we could make a movie out of it. I mean, people are going to wonder why we left, it would be easier than having to explain every time to just say, 'Here, watch this movie. It'll explain everything.'"

"Well, I guess," Beastboy nods, "but that's not what I was talking about! You guys _do _realize what day it is tomorrow?"

"I... kind of lost track of time," Robin admits. "What day are you talking about?"

"I believe he's referring to Halloween," Raven elaborates, taking another bite of her pizza. "Today's October 30th."

"Are you for real?" Cyborg says, looking amused. "You still want to go trick-or-treating?"

"Why not? It's a Halloween tradition!" Beastboy says, tossing an entire slice into his mouth.

"Oh, Robin, can we please go?" Starfire asks, turning to Robin. "I would love to observe the human tradition of tricking or treating!"

Beastboy smiles- he knows that he's already won.

Robin is silent for a moment, then says, "Yeah, sure, Star, we can head out on Halloween."

Starfire cheers. Cyborg rolls his eye. "Still can't say no," he says, smiling.

XXXX

And so it comes to be that the final clips of the film take place on a darkened street filled with the usual decorations, as well as the many people heading up and down the street, filling bags with candy. It seems almost fitting, in a way, that the film would end with a nod to the genre many would ascribe to it, yet which it will never truly belong to.

Robin hangs back a bit, watching as Starfire and Beastboy rush forward, while Raven and Cyborg follow more slowly. He begins to speak to the camera. "The truth is, I don't know exactly what happened in there," he elaborates. "I was floating through nothing, I saw the light, then... I don't know, I passed out and I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital. I talked to Starfire, and she told me just about the same thing- she found me in there, but then she passed out, and didn't wake up until we were both in the T-Car." He shakes his head. "I don't know. It's like... it's like the place had us... then just decided to let us go. Well... I'm going to take the offer. I'm never going back there again. Everyone's recovered- no more cold spots or night terrors or any of that. This is the last time I ever want to hold another camera. Seriously, if I never see another camera again, it'll be too soon. Heck, even Starfire's recovered from her claustrophobia! No, no point opening old wounds. We've got another place, in the city. Everything's alright."

"Robin!" comes a voice, and the camera turns to see Starfire rushing towards him. "Do people truly eat the ones judged to be 'nerds'?"

Robin laughs. "That's a candy, Star. Tell the others I'll be right there, okay?"

Starfire curiously opens the box, and empties out the brightly colored candies into her hand. Smiling, she throws them into her mouth. Looking up, she gives a quick nod then takes off back down the lane.

Robin nods again. "Yeah, everything's alright."

However, after everything that has happened, Robin knows better than to end the film on too positive a note. There has been too much lost- Jinx, Terra, Tim, and even Emma, should one desire to go back that far- to end the film without at least an acknowledgment of what has come to pass.

And so, it isn't with a shot of the usual Halloween decorations- friendly-looking ghosts, stereotypical spiders and bats, smiling pumpkins- that the film ends. As the film draws to a close, Robin brings the camera around to focus on a side street that has already finished for the night. As the camera focuses down the street, it reveals what the Titans now know to be true, then, in the past, and for all time: as the last child leaves the street, the street's lights begin to flicker out, one by one, until darkness sweeps in like a hand.

_XXXX_

And... this story is complete. Thank you all for following it for this long. (Side note, the end notes here are going to amount to a wall of text, so... make of them what you will.) No more messing around, this really is the end.

A few things I want to do before ending this story off for good: first, I want to give that summary that I promised of Johnny's story from the book this whole thing has been based on, _**House**_ of Leaves. Along the way, I'd like to discuss the little nuances from the book that really help explain the statement I made at the beginning that I can't really do the book as much justice as I'd like in this form.

Arguably, Johnny's story is actually the main story of the book. The book begins by describing it as _**House**_ of Leaves by Zampano, with introduction and notes by Johnny Truant. In his introduction, Johnny introduces himself to us, and describes how he was awoken in the middle of the night by his friend Lude, who lives in an apartment building with an old man (Zampano) who has recently passed away. When they go to investigate the old man's apartment, they find a black trunk filled with various collected paper objects with writing all over them. Together, the various scribbles form the manuscript of a book that Zampano was writing before he died, entitled _**House**_ of Leaves. Johnny, who seems to have an interest in writing, takes the loosely-defined 'manuscript' home and decides to finish it and prepare it for publishing. The rest of the book is the finished manuscript, originally written by Zampano but edited and put together by Johnny.

The book that Zampano was writing, it turns out, is an extended critique of a movie entitled _The Navidson Record_, which is the portion of the story that I modeled this story after, so I won't go on about its plot. The first thing that's different is that, every now and again, Zampano will insert footnotes to further elaborate on things that he said in the text itself. The next major deviation is when Johnny starts to tell his story through footnotes, taking brief breaks from _The Navidson Record_ to tell us little anecdotes about how he's been going about finishing up the story, about how something in the text has reminded him of something in his personal life, or so on. Eventually, Johnny starts to lose it, as he starts taking the story a little _too_ seriously. He starts to have panic attacks where he imagines himself being stalked by whatever monster he imagines haunts the Labyrinth- in essence, as the characters in _The Navidson Record _find themselves lost in the actual Labyrinth, Johnny finds himself lost in the Labyrinth of the text.

This leads to the next thing that couldn't really carry over into this story- as Johnny begins to lose it, it actually shows in the way the manuscript has been put together. The formatting of the story begins to go haywire, with windows of text appearing backwards, or just separate from the rest, forming pictures that have to do with the story (or sometimes don't) or run sideways or vertically, sometimes there will be only a few lines of text per page, scrunched into the bottom or top, at one point, there's a word that is spelled out over several pages, one letter a page, with the letters going every which way- all showing just how much Johnny is losing it.

At one point, he decides to go off and find the _**House**_ for himself, and the story briefly changes to detail entirely his story, describing his search through a series of chronologically confused journal entries. He discovers that, no matter how hard he looks, he can't find any sort of movie entitled _The Navidson Record_, and none of the people interviewed for the film or book can remember such a thing, and yet, at the same time, he can find concrete proof that said interviews took place, that the film did exist, etc. etc. This, of course, only further drives him over the edge, and there's a subplot with his mother, who seems to have gone insane...

Eventually, his story comes to an end just as _The Navidson Record _does. It is revealed that the last thing he did before he headed off on his search was to send the book off to be published, and as he searches, he finds a traveling rock band that has fallen in love with the book, to the point of writing songs based on it. Disguising who he is, he talks to the band, who manage to give some surprising insight into the book itself, and, above all, reveal to him that people _do _care, as they frequently wonder 'Whatever happened to Johnny?' Johnny is able to walk away with a new outlook, and, while the text doesn't describe what happens to him afterwards, it is implied that he's finally going to be able to forget the _**house**_, and his story even ends with the immortal words, "It's going to be alright. It's going to be alright."

Dang, this is turning out to be the longest end notes I've ever written. Chalk it up to my love of the book. If reading this story hasn't convinced you that the original is worth a read... it is. Like I said, there are moments that get a little... explicit, almost entirely in Johnny's story, insofar as it would probably be an M-rated fanfic if it _were _a fanfic, but the overall story makes up for it greatly. After all, Mark Z. Danielewski, the writer, spent ten years making sure it was just the way he wanted it.

Now, real quick, before I end off, I recently promised someone that whenever I wrote one of these 'based-on-a-previously-written-story' fanfics, I'd include credits in the end describing the roles, and while I did make an effort to give them separate roles and personalities, this story _was_ based on the book, so,

Gamer4 as Johnny Truant/Zampano (They are the two narrators, after all.)

Raven as Daisy Navidson-Green

Beastboy as Chad Navidson-Green

Cyborg as Billy Reston

Robin as Will Navidson

Starfire as Karen Green

Emma as Delial

Tim Drake as Tom Navidson

Silky as Hillary/Mallory

Aqualad as Kirby 'Wax' Hook

Jinx as Holloway Roberts

Terra as Jed Leeder

Not as many characters in this story as there usually are. Anyways, thanks, once more, for reading. I don't know how long it'll take me to get back to Teen Titans. There are a couple story ideas that I have, one of them being for another Teen Titans fic inspired by a horror story (I'd say which horror story, but it would actually be a spoiler for that one,) but the other one is a gigantic story for Zelda. So, I may return to Teen Titans eventually, but I don't know for sure. If I do, see you guys then! For the final time, please R&amp;R, constructive criticism is embraces, flames, not so much, Gamer4 out.


End file.
